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EFFECT OF DEEP TUBE WELL USE ON CHILDHOOD DIARRHEA IN BANGLADESH

Thursday, 2nd of June 2011 Print

The introduction of deep tube wells to reduce arsenic in drinking water in rural Bangladesh had the additional benefit of lowering the incidence of diarrhoea among young children.’

Effect of deep tube well use on childhood diarrhoea in Bangladesh

 

V Escamilla,a B Wagner,b M Yunus,c PK Streatfield,c A van Geend & M

Emcha

a Department of Geography, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3220, 308 Saunders

Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3220, United States of America (USA).

b Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.

c Demographic and Health Surveillance Unit, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research –

Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

d Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, USA.

Correspondence to Michael Emch (e-mail: emch@email.unc.edu).

 

Full text is at http://www.who.int/bulletin/online_first/10-085530.pdf

 

Abstract

 

Objective To determine whether the installation of deep tube wells to reduce exposure

to groundwater arsenic in rural Bangladesh had an effect on the incidence of childhood

diarrhoeal disease.

 

Methods Episodes of diarrhoeal disease in children aged under 5 years that

occurred on one specified day each month between 2005 and 2006 were reported to

community health workers for six rural villages. A geographical information system

containing details of household water use and sanitation in the villages was built using

data obtained by a global positioning system survey. The information system also

included health, spatial and demographic data. A field survey was carried out to

determine whether households obtained drinking water from deep tube wells installed

before 2005. The effect of deep tube well use on the incidence of childhood diarrhoea

was assessed using a random effects negative binomial regression model.

 

Findings The risk of childhood diarrhoea was 46% lower in the 179 households

that used a deep tube well than in the 364 that used a shallow tube well (P = 0.032).

Neither socioeconomic status, latrine density, population density nor study year had a

significant influence on disease risk. The incidence of childhood diarrhoea declined

dramatically between 2005 and 2006, irrespective of water source.

 

Conclusion The introduction of deep tube wells to reduce arsenic in drinking

water in rural Bangladesh had the additional benefit of lowering the incidence of

diarrhoea among young children.

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