Abstract
Background: Hurungwe district, one of Zimbabwe’s largest districts is not immune to the numerous typhoid fever outbreaks that have been occurring in Zimbabwe over the past twelve to fifteen years. The main aim of this study was to examine risk factors associated with acquiring typhoid fever in Hurungwe District, Zimbabwe. These factors are environmental, socio-demographic, health care related, and cultural. While previous studies have determined that environmental factors have a strong link to the development of typhoid fever, this study explored the other factors to determine their association to the development of typhoid fever. Methods: A quantitative case-control study with a sample size, of 398 participants. The study was conducted in Chidamoyo Mission Hospital and Karoi District Hospital. A questionnaire was administered as the method of data collection and participants were selected using simple random sampling. Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Cases were individuals who had been diagnosed with typhoid fever between 2016 - 2018 (n=38) and Controls were individuals who had not been diagnosed with Typhoid Fever between 2016 - 2018 (n=360). For each of the objectives, logistic regression analysis was carried out as it was the best and most powerful method because of the presence of one dependent variable (typhoid fever) and multiple independent variables (environmental, cultural, healthcare related and sociodemographic factors)...
M.A. (Public Health)