The joint effects of water and sanitation on diarrhoeal disease: a multicountry analysis of the Demographic and Health Surveys.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To assess whether the joint effects of water and sanitation infrastructure, are acting antagonistically (redundant services preventing the same cases of diarrhoeal disease), independently, or synergistically; and to assess how these effects vary by country and over time.

Methods

We used data from 217 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 74 countries between 1986 and 2013. We used modified Poisson regression to assess the impact of water and sanitation infrastructure on the prevalence of diarrhoea among children under 5.

Results

The impact of water and sanitation varied across surveys, and adjusting for socio-economic status drove these estimates towards the null. Sanitation had a greater effect than water infrastructure when all 217 surveys were pool

SUBMITTER: Fuller JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4308567 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature