Soil Transmitted Helminths (STH) affect more than half of the world’s population with the children greatly affected. Despite the government’s free deworming medication and the existence of the Integrated Helminth control Program, the coverage of dewormed children remained below the target set by the WHO and the DOH. Considering the vital role of parents on the success of this program, this study was conducted to find the relationship of knowledge and perception of parents of school age children (SAC) about soil-transmitted helminth (STH) to the acceptance of the deworming program of the government. This was a cross sectional analytical study carried out in Zamboanga City last May 2018 among parents of school age children which utilized multi-stage sampling to gather 361 respondent who were interviewed using researcher administered questionnaire. Result of the study showed that overall, more than half, 270 (75%) respondents were knowledgeable on worm infestation.A total of 241(66%) respondents dewormed their children within the last 12 months. 227(63%) respondents accepted the deworming program. When results were analized using Pearson’s chi-square test, their knowledge about worm infesttaion knowledge was not statistically significant to the deworming status of SAC (p-value =0.548) and the acceptance of the deworming program (p-value= 0.845). Most respondents perceived that having STH was serious matter (83%), had negative effects on someone’s health (69%), had no positive or good effects on someone’s health (73%) and needed treatment ( 81%). Parents who perceive that having STH was a serious matter (p-value 0.013) and that it needed treatment (p-value =0.000) were more likely to deworm their children..Acceptance of the Deworming program showed statistical significance to the perceptions of STH as a serious matter (p-value=0.032), has negative effects (p-value=0.003), and the need for treatment (p-value-0.001). Results of this study conclude that perception about STH were more likely to lead the parents to accept deworming and the deworming program.

Keyword: Worm infestation Acceptance of deworming programs