Is there a helminth anemia/malnutrition association after
controlling for covariates? Finally, we examined whether the
surprising associations between early helminth infections and
anemia or wasting malnutrition persisted after controlling for
covariates using multivariate and logistic regression models.
Results from the community-based sample confirmed that
helminth infection was positively associated with Hb (β =
5.44 g/L, P < 0.001) and MUAC-for-age Z score (β = 0.30 Z,
P < 0.001) after adjusting for sex, age, malaria infection, and
fever. However, these effects were modified by malaria (in the
case of Hb) and fever (in the case of MUAC-for-age Z score),
such that the positive association between helminth infection
and Hb (or MUAC-for-age Z score) was smaller in children who
had malaria infection (or fever, in the case of MUAC-for-age Z
score). Thus, for both Hb and MUAC, the “positive helminth
association” was diminished by about 60% in the inflammatory
condition of malaria infection or fever ( Table 4A ).