Educational intervention for altering water-sanitation behavior to reduce childhood diarrhea in urban Bangladesh: impact on nutritional status.

We evaluated whether an educational intervention that was effective in reducing childhood diarrhea also improved childhood nutritional status. Fifty-one communities of 38 families each were randomized to receive the intervention or no intervention. During 1 y of follow-up the rate of diarrhea (per 100 wk) in children less than 6 y in the intervention group was 5.89 episodes whereas that in the nonintervention group was 7.55 episodes (protective efficacy 22%; p less than 0.0001). During the same follow-up period children in both groups exhibited comparable patterns of weight gain; 1 y after the intervention the mean weight for age of children in both groups was 76% of the NCHS standard. No significant differences were observed in the proportion of each group that experienced a major deterioration or improvement of nutritional status. We conclude that an intervention that reduces rates of childhood diarrhea may not necessarily also improve nutritional status.