AJTMH Tropical Medicine and Hygiene News
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 81(5), 2009, pp. 882-887
doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2009.09-0031;
Copyright © 2009 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Luby, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by Johnston, R. B.
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Luby, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by Johnston, R. B.

Household Characteristics Associated with Handwashing with Soap in Rural Bangladesh

Stephen P. Luby*, Amal K. Halder, Carole Tronchet, Shamima Akhter, Abbas Bhuiya, AND Richard B. Johnston
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Water and Environmental Sanitation Section, UNICEF Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Handwashing with soap prevents diarrhea and respiratory disease, but it is rarely practiced in high-need settings. Among 100 randomly selected villages in rural Bangladesh, field workers enrolled 10 households per village and observed and recorded household activities for 5 hours. Field workers observed 761 handwashing opportunities among household members in 527 households who had just defecated or who cleaned a child’s anus who had defecated. In the final multivariate analysis, having water available at the place to wash hands after toileting (odds ratio = 2.2, 95% confidence interval 1.3, 4.0) and having soap available at the place to wash hands after toileting (odds ratio = 2.1, 95% confidence interval 1.3, 3.4) were associated with washing both hands with soap after fecal contact. Interventions that improve the presence of water and soap at the designated place to wash hands would be expected to improve handwashing behavior and health.

Received January 17, 2009. Accepted for publication July 15, 2009.

Acknowledgments: Financial support: This program evaluation was funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) through UNICEF Bangladesh. ICDDR,B acknowledges with gratitude the commitment of DFID and UNICEF to the Centre’s research efforts.

* Address correspondence to Stephen P. Luby, Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences, ICDDR,B, GPO Box 128, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. E-mail: sluby{at}icddrb.org

Authors’ addresses: Stephen P. Luby, Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences, ICDDR,B, GPO Box 128, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh, Tel: 88-02-988-1761, Fax: 88-02-882-3963, E-mail: sluby{at}icddrb.org. Amal K. Halder, World Vision, North Sudan, Al Amarat, Street 51, Block 10, PO Box 15143, Khartoum, Sudan, E-mail: Amal_Halder{at}wvi.org. Carole Tronchet, UNICEF Bangladesh, BSL Office Complex, 1 Minto Road, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh, Tel: (880-2) 9336701, Fax: (880-2) 9335641, E-mail: ctronchet{at}unicef.org. Shamima Akhter, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Alabama Birmingham, E-mail: shamima{at}uab.edu. Abbas Bhuiya, ICDDR,B, GPO Box 128, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh, E-mail: abbas{at}icddrb.org. Richard B. Johnston, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, E-mail: Richard.Johnston{at}eawag.ch.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.