Paul Bénédique
CHIBAS, Université Quisqueya, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
GESD, Université Quisqueya, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
BMJ Public Health. 2023 Sep 19;1(1):e000082. doi: 10.1136/bmjph-2023-000082. eCollection 2023 Nov.
Open defecation (OD) is recognised as an important public health challenge in low-income and middle-income countries. Although agriculture is the main occupation in these countries, few if any study on OD has focused on agricultural households. In order to enhance the prevention of OD and contribute to a better understanding of this health-threatening behaviour, this paper analyses the socio-economic factors associated with OD practice among agricultural households in Haiti.
The study used primary data from 1269 households selected in 5 out of 10 geographic departments of Haiti surveyed in 2020-2021. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were used to identify households' characteristics that were significantly associated with OD. In addition, a multivariate analysis was performed using binary logistic regression to study the factors associated with the probability to defecate in the open.
Findings show that one out of five (20.1%) agricultural households in Haiti practices OD. More than 26% of the households did not have any member with secondary school education level. Multivariate analysis revealed that in addition to the location, the probability of OD practices among agricultural households was correlated with socio-economic factors such as education, access to the media, plot number and livestock, level of specialisation in the agriculture, agricultural income and participation in local organisations.
While Haiti is struggling with cholera among other health issues, this paper sheds light on factors associated with OD, a health-threatening and unsustainable sanitation behaviour. According to the results, in addition to toilet acquisition subsidies, awareness campaigns need to make use of mass media and local organisations particularly women and community ones. Elimination of OD among agricultural households is of great significance for better quality of foods and vegetables at watershed level.
在低收入和中等收入国家，露天排便被视为一项重大的公共卫生挑战。尽管农业是这些国家的主要职业，但几乎没有关于露天排便的研究关注农业家庭。为了加强对露天排便的预防，并有助于更好地理解这种威胁健康的行为，本文分析了海地农业家庭中与露天排便行为相关的社会经济因素。
该研究使用了2020 - 2021年在海地10个地理部门中的5个部门选取的1269户家庭的原始数据。描述性统计和双变量分析用于确定与露天排便显著相关的家庭特征。此外，使用二元逻辑回归进行多变量分析，以研究与露天排便可能性相关的因素。
研究结果表明，海地五分之一（20.1%）的农业家庭存在露天排便现象。超过26%的家庭没有任何成员具有中学教育水平。多变量分析显示，除了地理位置外，农业家庭露天排便的可能性还与社会经济因素相关，如教育程度、媒体接触情况、地块数量和牲畜数量、农业专业化程度、农业收入以及参与当地组织的情况。
虽然海地在应对霍乱等其他健康问题，但本文揭示了与露天排便相关的因素，这是一种威胁健康且不可持续的卫生行为。根据研究结果，除了提供厕所购置补贴外，提高认识的运动需要利用大众媒体和当地组织，特别是妇女组织和社区组织。消除农业家庭中的露天排便现象对于提高流域层面的食品和蔬菜质量具有重要意义。
