Faculty of Economics, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan.
Department of Economics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Asia Pac J Public Health. 2023 Nov;35(8):494-501. doi: 10.1177/10105395231204797. Epub 2023 Oct 14.
Childhood undernutrition and diarrhea remain a global health burden in the 21 century. We assessed the effect of access to basic drinking water and sanitation at home on reducing children's likelihood of being undernourished and experiencing diarrhea in Laos. We pooled two rounds of nationally representative cross-sectional household surveys: the Lao Social Indicator Surveys 2011/2012 and 2017, encompassing 23 070 children aged <5 years. We employed multivariate multilevel logistic regression for the analysis. The results showed that access to basic drinking water was associated with a reduced likelihood of undernutrition and was effective in improving child undernutrition. Moreover, access to basic sanitation reduced diarrhea in addition to undernutrition. Notably, sanitation facilities only mitigated childhood stunting and diarrhea when basic drinking water facilities were present in the household. We also confirmed that socio-economic disparities existed among children accessing basic drinking water and sanitation. Consequently, further efforts are needed toward equitable access to these facilities in Laos.
在 21 世纪，儿童营养不良和腹泻仍然是全球卫生负担。我们评估了在家中获得基本饮用水和卫生设施的机会对减少儿童营养不良和腹泻的影响。我们汇总了两轮具有全国代表性的横断面家庭调查：老挝社会指标调查 2011/2012 年和 2017 年，涵盖了 23,070 名<5 岁儿童。我们采用多变量多层逻辑回归进行分析。结果表明，获得基本饮用水与降低营养不良的可能性有关，并能有效改善儿童营养不良。此外，获得基本卫生设施除了能减少营养不良外，还能减少腹泻。值得注意的是，只有当家庭中同时具备基本饮用水设施时，卫生设施才能减轻儿童发育迟缓症和腹泻。我们还证实，在获得基本饮用水和卫生设施方面，儿童之间存在社会经济差异。因此，老挝需要进一步努力实现这些设施的公平获取。
