WASH interventions and child diarrhea at the interface of climate and socioeconomic position in Bangladesh

Pearl Anne Ante-Testard (), Francois Rerolle, Anna T. Nguyen, Sania Ashraf, Sarker Masud Parvez, Abu Mohammed Naser, Tarik Benmarhnia, Mahbubur Rahman, Stephen P. Luby, Jade Benjamin-Chung and Benjamin F. Arnold
Additional contact information
Pearl Anne Ante-Testard: University of California, San Francisco
Francois Rerolle: University of California, San Francisco
Anna T. Nguyen: Stanford University
Sania Ashraf: Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b
Sarker Masud Parvez: Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b
Abu Mohammed Naser: University of Memphis
Tarik Benmarhnia: University of California, San Diego
Mahbubur Rahman: Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b
Stephen P. Luby: Stanford University
Jade Benjamin-Chung: Stanford University
Benjamin F. Arnold: University of California, San Francisco

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Many diarrhea-causing pathogens are climate-sensitive, and populations with the lowest socioeconomic position (SEP) are often most vulnerable to climate-related transmission. Household Water, Sanitation, and Handwashing (WASH) interventions constitute one potential effective strategy to reduce child diarrhea, especially among low-income households. Capitalizing on a cluster randomized trial population (360 clusters, 4941 children with 8440 measurements) in rural Bangladesh, one of the world’s most climate-sensitive regions, we show that improved WASH substantially reduces diarrhea risk with largest benefits among children with lowest SEP and during the monsoon season. We extrapolated trial results to rural Bangladesh regions using high-resolution geospatial layers to identify areas most likely to benefit. Scaling up a similar intervention could prevent an estimated 734 (95% CI 385, 1085) cases per 1000 children per month during the seasonal monsoon, with marked regional heterogeneities. Here, we show how to extend large-scale trials to inform WASH strategies among climate-sensitive and low-income populations.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45624-1 Abstract (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:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-45624-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45624-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().