University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Pediatrics. 2024 Jun 1;153(6). doi: 10.1542/peds.2023-063981.
Safe drinking water and closed sanitation are fundamental to health and are assumed in the United States, however, gaps remain, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. We sought to describe household sanitation access for children in rural Alabama and local health provider knowledge of sanitation related health concerns.
Data were collected from self-administered surveys obtained from children enrolled in a larger cross-sectional study to determine soil transmitted helminthiasis prevalence in Alabama, from a survey of health providers from local federally qualified health centers and from a baseline knowledge check of Alabama health providers enrolled in an online sanitation health course.
Surveys completed on 771 children (approximately 10% of county pediatric population) revealed less than half lived in homes connected to centralized sewers; 12% reported "straight-pipes," a method of discharging untreated sewage to the ground outside the home, and 8% reported sewage contamination of their home property in the past year. Additionally, 15% of respondents were likely to use well water. The local health providers surveyed did not include routine screening for water and sanitation failures or associated infections. Regional healthcare providers have limited knowledge of soil transmitted helminthiasis.
A significant number of children from rural counties of Alabama with high rates of poverty reside in homes with water and sanitation challenges that predominantly affect African American families. This is an under-recognized health risk by local health providers, and its contribution to well-documented health disparities in this region is poorly understood.
安全饮用水和封闭卫生设施是健康的基本要素，这在美国是理所当然的，但仍存在差距，而且不成比例地影响到边缘化社区。我们旨在描述阿拉巴马州农村地区儿童的家庭卫生设施获取情况，以及当地卫生提供者对与卫生设施相关的健康问题的了解程度。
从在阿拉巴马州进行的一项更大的横断面研究中招募的儿童的自我管理调查中收集数据，以确定土壤传播性蠕虫病的流行率；从当地联邦合格健康中心的卫生提供者的调查中收集数据；从参加在线卫生设施健康课程的阿拉巴马州卫生提供者的基线知识检查中收集数据。
对 771 名儿童（约占该县儿科人口的 10%）进行的调查显示，不到一半的儿童居住在与中央污水系统相连的家庭中；12%的儿童报告使用“直通管”，这是一种将未经处理的污水直接排放到家庭外部地面的方法，8%的儿童报告过去一年家庭财产受到污水污染。此外，15%的受访者可能使用井水。接受调查的当地卫生提供者没有包括对水和卫生设施故障或相关感染的常规筛查。区域医疗保健提供者对土壤传播性蠕虫病的了解有限。
阿拉巴马州农村地区的许多贫困率较高的儿童居住在面临水和卫生设施挑战的家庭中，这种情况主要影响非裔美国家庭。当地卫生提供者对这一未被充分认识的健康风险认识不足，其对该地区已有记录的健康差距的贡献也知之甚少。
