Ciência e Tecnologia Veterinária

Toxoplasma gondii among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Central Gondar Zone Public Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

Eden Woldegerima*, Mastewal Birhan, Mequanint Melesse, Destaw Fetene Tesshome, Asnakew Belete, Rediet Eristu and Nega Berhane

Background: Toxoplasmosis, caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, is a significant public health concern in Ethiopia due to its high prevalence and associated risk factors. Exploring the mechanism in the causal pathway how risk factors affect T. gondii is paramount important to develop targeted, population specific public health interventions to reduce the burden of Toxoplasmosis among pregnant women in the community. Hence, this study aimed to determine the relationship between risk factors and their contribution for development for T. gondii among pregnant women attending at Central Gondar Zone Public Hospitals.

Methods: A cross sectional study conducted questioner survey was conducted using questions based on the framework to confirm how the disease is transmitted. A set of rating scale questions was used to measure each model construct. Data was collected using a semi-structured Amharic version questioner. Total of 554 study pregnant women participated in this study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) used to explore the mechanism how risk factors affect T. gondii using AMOS-version 18. Data entered into SPSS-2020. Each parameter's Cornbrash's alpha was assessed using the average inter-item correlations. The path coefficient used to estimate the coefficient.

Results: The SEM analysis showed that the proposed model was appropriate and the data fit reasonably well (χ²=131.493, RMSEA=0.176, CFI=0.866, TLI=0.139, IFI=0.871, NFI=0.865, Degrees of freedom=7). The risk factors suggested that both education and residence were associated with increased exposure to cat faeces. Residence was also found to be positively correlated with dust exposure. However, there was an inverse association between education and dog contact. The regression investigation revealed statistically significant associations between residence, dust exposure, and water-related.

Conclusion: The model demonstrates a reasonable fit, suggesting regular awareness creation for toxoplasmosis management techniques, providing baseline information for control and prevention strategies, and improving toxoplasmosis knowledge and epidemiology.