Kawamoto Sae, Nonaka Daisuke, Inthavong Nouhak
Graduate School of Health Sciences, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan.
Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute, Ministry of Health, Vientiane, Lao PDR.
Trop Med Health. 2024 Sep 18;52(1):60. doi: 10.1186/s41182-024-00626-z.
For safe drinking water, household water treatments (HWT) is important to reduce the risk of diarrhea in low-and-middle countries including Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). However, the measurement of HWT relies chiefly on self-report in most nationwide surveys. Thus, the validity of self-reported measurement is of concern. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of households with the presence of boiled water among households that report boiling practices in a rural area of the Lao PDR.
This study was conducted with randomly selected 108 households in the four villages in the catchment area of the two health centers, in Xepon district of the Savannakhet province, between September and October 2023. The inclusion criterion of the households was the households that report boiling as HWT. Surveyors conducted interviews with an adult household member and observations on boiled water through household visits, using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were conducted to summarize the collected information using the frequency with proportion for categorical variables and the median with interquartile range for continuous variables. Bivariate analyses were conducted to assess an association between each of the factors and the presence of boiled water, using Fisher's exact test.
Among the 108 households that reported boiling practice, 91 households were able to show the surveyor self-reported boiled water. Thus, the proportion of households with the presence of boiled water was 90.1% (95% confidence interval: 82.5-95.1%). Households with a fixed schedule of boiling were significantly more likely to present boiled water, compared to households without (94.5% vs. 50.0%). Not all household members do not necessarily drink boiled water: approximately a quarter (25.7%) of the participants reported that some household members drink unboiled water.
This study showed that among households that reported boiling drinking water, 90.1% were able to present a container with self-reported boiled water. It suggests that the self-reported measure of boiling practices can be valid in the study villages.
对于安全饮用水而言，家庭水处理对于降低包括老挝人民民主共和国（老挝）在内的中低收入国家腹泻风险至关重要。然而，在大多数全国性调查中，家庭水处理的测量主要依赖自我报告。因此，自我报告测量的有效性受到关注。本研究的目的是确定老挝农村地区报告有煮沸行为的家庭中存在开水的家庭比例。
2023年9月至10月期间，在沙湾拿吉省色蓬区两个卫生中心集水区的四个村庄中随机抽取了108户家庭进行本研究。家庭的纳入标准是报告将煮沸作为家庭水处理方式的家庭。调查员通过入户访问，使用问卷对一名成年家庭成员进行访谈，并观察开水情况。使用分类变量的频率与比例以及连续变量的中位数与四分位数间距进行描述性统计，以总结收集到的信息。使用Fisher精确检验进行双变量分析，以评估每个因素与开水存在之间的关联。
在报告有煮沸行为的108户家庭中，91户能够向调查员展示自我报告的开水。因此，有开水的家庭比例为90.1%（95%置信区间：82.5 - 95.1%）。与没有固定煮沸时间表的家庭相比，有固定煮沸时间表的家庭更有可能有开水（94.5%对50.0%）。并非所有家庭成员都一定饮用开水：约四分之一（25.7%）的参与者报告称一些家庭成员饮用未煮沸的水。
本研究表明，在报告有煮沸饮用水行为的家庭中，90.1%能够展示装有自我报告的开水的容器。这表明在研究村庄中，自我报告的煮沸行为测量可能是有效的。
