Health Outcomes of an Integrated Behaviour-Centred Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Food Safety Intervention–A Randomised before and after Trial

Tracy Morse, Elizabeth Tilley, Kondwani Chidziwisano, Rossanie Malolo and Janelisa Musaya
Additional contact information
Tracy Morse: Centre for Water, Environment, Sustainability and Public Health, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Elizabeth Tilley: Department of Environmental Health, University of Malawi (Polytechnic), Blantyre, Malawi
Kondwani Chidziwisano: Centre for Water, Environment, Sustainability and Public Health, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Rossanie Malolo: Centre for Water, Sanitation, Health and Appropriate Technology Development (WASHTED), University of Malawi (Polytechnic), Blantyre, Malawi
Janelisa Musaya: Department of Biochemical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Diarrhoeal disease in children under five in low income settings has been associated with multiple environmental exposure pathways, including complementary foods. Conducted from February to December 2018 in rural Malawi, this before and after trial with a control used diarrhoeal disease as a primary outcome, to measure the impact of a food hygiene intervention (food hygiene + handwashing) relative to a food hygiene and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention (food hygiene + handwashing + faeces management + water management). The 31-week intervention was delivered by community-based coordinators through community events ( n = 2), cluster group meetings ( n = 17) and household visits ( n = 14). Diarrhoeal disease was self-reported and measured through an end line survey, and daily diaries completed by caregivers. Difference-in-differences results show a 13-percentage point reduction in self-reported diarrhoea compared to the control group. There were also significant increases in the presence of proxy measures in each of the treatment groups (e.g., the presence of soap). We conclude that food hygiene interventions (including hand washing with soap) can significantly reduce diarrhoeal disease prevalence in children under five years in a low-income setting. Therefore, the promotion of food hygiene practices using a behaviour-centred approach should be embedded in nutrition and WASH policies and programming.

Keywords: food hygiene; behaviour change; water; sanitation and hygiene; low and middle income countries; diarrhoeal disease (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2648/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2648/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2648-:d:344720

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().