prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among mentally disabled children and adults of urmia, iran

background: the prevalence of intestinal parasites infection in institutions for mental retarda­tion of ur­mia city, west azerbaijan province, iran was investigated. methods: this descriptive - cross sectional study was carried out in of urmia city in 2007-2008. fecal samples of 225 less than 29 year old mentally disabled individu­als were examined using direct smear, formalin - ether concen­tration. beside their scotch tape samples were observed for enterobius eggs. statisti­cal evaluation was per­formed by spss 10. results : of 225 mentally retarded persons, 118(52.4%) and 107(47.6%) were female and male. the over­all prevalence of infection was 20.4% and that of male, and female were 20.5% and 20.3%, respectively. 17.3% of examined individuals had protozoa infection and 3.1% showed entero­bius vermicularis eggs. the infection rates of detected intestinal protozoa were enta­moeba coli 9.7%, giardia lamblia 6.2%, io­doamoeba butschlii 5.7%, blastocystis hominis 4%, and entamoeba histolytica/dispar 0.4%. forty per­cent of 1-5 year, 22.8% of 6-14 year, 22.2% of 15-18 year, and 16.8% of more than 18-year age groups, had positive results in their tests. accord­ing to iq test results, 23.8% of less than 25 score group, 19.6% of 25-50, 17.2% of 50-75, and 40% of 75-90 groups were infected. conclusion : more efforts for increasing sanitation level and prompt diagnosis and treat­ment of infected persons in these institutions are necessary.