3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Arch Dis Child. 2010 Nov;95(11):898-902. doi: 10.1136/adc.2009.179648. Epub 2010 Jun 22.
Care givers may engage in a variety of strategies to try and improve drinking water for children. However, the pattern of these efforts is not well known, particularly for young children in high-risk situations. The objective of this study was to determine care giver-reported strategies for young children with (1) undernutrition and (2) living in an unplanned poor peri-urban community in the Dominican Republic.
Practices reported by care givers of young children from a community and clinic group were extracted from interviews conducted between 2004 and 2008 (n = 563). These results were compared to two previous similar samples interviewed in 1997 (n = 341).
Bottled water is currently the most prevalent reported strategy for improving drinking water for young children. Its use increased from 6% to 69% in the community samples over the last decade and from 13% to 79% in the clinic samples. Boiling water continues to be a common strategy, particularly for the youngest children, though its overall use has decreased over time. Household-level chlorination is infrequently used and has dropped over time.
Care givers are increasingly turning to bottled water in an attempt to provide safe drinking water for their children. While this may represent a positive trend for protecting children from water-transmitted diseases, it may represent an inefficient approach to safe drinking water provision that may place a financial burden on low-income families.
照顾者可能会采取各种策略来尝试改善儿童的饮用水。然而，这些努力的模式并不为人所知，特别是对于生活在高风险环境中的幼儿。本研究的目的是确定照顾者为患有（1）营养不良和（2）生活在多米尼加共和国非计划性贫困城市边缘社区的幼儿报告的策略。
从 2004 年至 2008 年进行的访谈中提取了来自社区和诊所组的幼儿照顾者报告的做法（n=563）。将这些结果与 1997 年接受过两次类似访谈的两组（n=341）进行了比较。
目前，瓶装水是改善幼儿饮用水最普遍的报告策略。在过去十年中，社区样本中瓶装水的使用从 6%增加到 69%，而诊所样本中从 13%增加到 79%。煮沸水仍然是一种常见的策略，特别是对于最年幼的儿童，但随着时间的推移，其总体使用量有所减少。家庭层面的氯化消毒很少使用，而且随着时间的推移有所减少。
照顾者越来越多地求助于瓶装水，试图为孩子提供安全的饮用水。虽然这可能代表了保护儿童免受水传播疾病的积极趋势，但这可能是一种低效的安全饮用水供应方法，可能会给低收入家庭带来经济负担。
