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. 2023 Jun 19;9(6):e17219.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17219. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Evaluation of resistance of human head lice to pyrethroid insecticides: A meta-analysis study

Ebrahim Abbasi  1   2 , Salman Daliri  3 , Zahra Yazdani  4 , Shokrollah Mohseni  1 , Ghulamraza Mohammadyan  1 , Seyedeh Niloofar Seyed Hosseini  4 , Reza Nasiri Haghighi  4
Affiliations

Evaluation of resistance of human head lice to pyrethroid insecticides: A meta-analysis study

Ebrahim Abbasi et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Introduction: Pediculosis is one of the most common annoying infections caused by parasitic lice in humans. Pyrethroids are one of the main insecticides used to treat this infection. But recently, due to the Resistance of lice to this group of insecticides, its insecticidal effects have been affected. The present study was conducted through a meta-analysis to investigate the prevalence of pyrethroid resistance against these insecticides worldwide.

Methods: This study was conducted as a meta-analysis of the prevalence of treatment resistance in human head lice against pyrethroid insecticides worldwide. Based on this, all articles published without a time limit until the end of June 2022 in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science (ISI), Scopus, and Google Scholar databases were extracted and using random-effects meta-analysis model statistical methods in the meta-analysis, Cochrane, Index I2, and funnel plot were analyzed by STATA software.

Results: Twenty studies were included in the meta-analysis process. According to this, the prevalence of pyrethroid resistance insecticides in human head lice was estimated at 59% (CI95%: 50%-68%). Among pyrethroid insecticides, the highest prevalence of pyrethroid resistance against permethrin insecticide was 65%. Regarding the prevalence of Resistance by year, the prevalence before 2004 was estimated at 33%, but after 2015, this rate reached 82%. Also, the majority of pyrethroid resistance was estimated at 68% using genetic diagnosis methods and 43% using clinical diagnosis methods.

Conclusion: More than half of human head lice pyrethroid resistance insecticides. Based on this, it is recommended that before using this treatment method to treat human head lice Infestation, it should investigate the prevalence of pyrethroid resistance in that area, and if the majority of Resistance is high, alternative or combined treatment methods should be used.

Keywords: Human head lice; Insecticides; Meta-analysis; Pyrethroid; Resistance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The PRISMA flow diagram.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Pooled prevalence rate of pyrethroid resistance human head lice against pyrethroid insecticides based on random-effects meta-analysis model. The midpoint of each line segment shows the prevalence estimate, the length of the line segment indicates the 95% confidence interval in each study, and the diamond mark illustrates the pooled Resistance prevalence.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Pooled prevalence rate of pyrethroid resistance human head lice based on the type of insecticide using a random-effects model.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Pooled prevalence rate of pyrethroid resistance human head lice based on the Method for diagnosing Resistance using a random-effects model.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Pooled prevalence rate of pyrethroid resistance head lice treatment based on the year of the study using the random-effects model.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Funnel plot of the prevalence of human head lice resistance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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