Role of sociocultural and environmental factors in the cause of scabies.

A house-to-house survey for scabies was done in a semiurban area with a population of 1727 from 273 families in 253 households, to study the sociocultural and environmental factors in families with scabies. It was found that sleeping habits, overcrowding for sleeping space and sharing of clothes, towel, etc, were significantly associated with scabies. There was no significant correlation between the size of family and the number of persons infected with scabies per family. The prevalence of scabies within the families was almost the same either with good hygiene, satisfactory hygiene or unsatisfactory hygiene. The factors significantly associated with the disease were observed to be more frequent among Christian families than among Hindus and were thought to be responsible for higher prevalence of the disease within the Christian families.