Tazin Sumaiya, Islam Mahfuza, Pickering Amy J, Kwong Laura H, Mertens Andrew, Niven Caitlin, Arnold Benjamin F, Hubbard Alan E, Alam Mahfuja, Sen Debashis, Islam Sharmin, Rahman Mahbubur, Unicomb Leanne, Luby Stephen P, Colford John M, Benjamin-Chung Jade, Ercumen Ayse
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 May 8:2025.05.07.652756. doi: 10.1101/2025.05.07.652756.
Soil floors are common in low-income countries and can harbor contamination from unsafely managed human and animal fecal waste. Soil/dust ingestion directly from floors or indirectly via hands, drinking water and food can significantly contribute to children's ingestion of fecal organisms. We assessed if finished (e.g., concrete) floors are associated with lower contamination in the domestic environment in rural Bangladesh. We collected samples from 1864 households over 3.5 years, including stored drinking water, child and caregiver hand rinses, courtyard soil, food, and flies (n=24,118 samples), and enumerated using IDEXX Quanti-Tray/2000. Controlling for potential confounders (socio-demographics, water/sanitation status, animal ownership), households with finished floors had slightly lower log10-transformed counts (Δlog10= -0.10 (-0.20, 0.00)) and prevalence (prevalence ratio=0.90 (0.83, 0.98)) on child hands than households with soil floors; floor material was not associated with contamination levels in other sample types. Finished floors were associated with lower contamination of child hands, food and stored drinking water following periods of higher rainfall and temperature, and lower contamination of child hands in households with more domestic animals. Measures to control enteric infections in low-income countries should test flooring improvements to reduce exposure to fecal contamination.
泥土地面在低收入国家很常见，可能会受到未经安全处理的人类和动物粪便废物的污染。直接从地面或通过手、饮用水和食物间接摄入土壤/灰尘，会显著增加儿童摄入粪便微生物的量。我们评估了在孟加拉国农村家庭环境中，铺设好的（如混凝土）地面是否与较低的污染相关。在3.5年的时间里，我们从1864户家庭中采集了样本，包括储存的饮用水、儿童和看护者的洗手水、庭院土壤、食物和苍蝇（共24118个样本），并使用IDEXX Quanti-Tray/2000进行计数。在控制了潜在混杂因素（社会人口统计学、水/卫生状况、动物饲养情况）后，与泥土地面的家庭相比，铺设好地面的家庭儿童手上的对数转换后计数略低（Δlog10 = -0.10（-0.20，0.00）），患病率也较低（患病率比 = 0.90（0.83，0.98））；地面材料与其他样本类型的污染水平无关。在降雨和温度较高的时期之后，铺设好的地面与儿童手部、食物和储存饮用水的较低污染相关，在饲养更多家畜的家庭中，儿童手部污染也较低。低收入国家控制肠道感染的措施应测试改善地面状况以减少粪便污染暴露。
