Dataset Information

Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low- and middle-income settings: a retrospective analysis of data from 145 countries.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate the burden of diarrhoeal diseases from exposure to inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene in low- and middle-income settings and provide an overview of the impact on other diseases.

Methods

For estimating the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene on diarrhoea, we selected exposure levels with both sufficient global exposure data and a matching exposure-risk relationship. Global exposure data were estimated for the year 2012, and risk estimates were taken from the most recent systematic analyses. We estimated attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by country, age and sex for inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene separately, and as a cluster of risk factors. Uncertainty estimates were computed on the basis of uncertainty surrounding exposure estimates and relative risks.

Results

In 2012, 502,000 diarrhoea deaths were estimated to be caused by inadequate drinking water and 280,000 deaths by inadequate sanitation. The most likely estimate of disease burden from inadequate hand hygiene amounts to 297,000 deaths. In total, 842,000 diarrhoea deaths are estimated to be caused by this cluster of risk factors, which amounts to 1.5% of the total disease burden and 58% of diarrhoeal diseases. In children under 5 years old, 361,000 deaths could be prevented, representing 5.5% of deaths in that age group.

Conclusions

This estimate confirms the importance of improving water and sanitation in low- and middle-income settings for the prevention of diarrhoeal disease burden. It also underscores the need for better data on exposure and risk reductions that can be achieved with provision of reliable piped water, community sewage with treatment and hand hygiene.

SUBMITTER: Pruss-Ustun A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4255749 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low- and middle-income settings: a retrospective analysis of data from 145 countries.

Prüss-Ustün Annette A Bartram Jamie J Clasen Thomas T Colford John M JM Cumming Oliver O Curtis Valerie V Bonjour Sophie S Dangour Alan D AD De France Jennifer J Fewtrell Lorna L Freeman Matthew C MC Gordon Bruce B Hunter Paul R PR Johnston Richard B RB Mathers Colin C Mäusezahl Daniel D Medlicott Kate K Neira Maria M Stocks Meredith M Wolf Jennyfer J Cairncross Sandy S

Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH 20140430 8

<h4>Objective</h4>To estimate the burden of diarrhoeal diseases from exposure to inadequate water, sanitation and hand hygiene in low- and middle-income settings and provide an overview of the impact on other diseases.<h4>Methods</h4>For estimating the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene on diarrhoea, we selected exposure levels with both sufficient global exposure data and a matching exposure-risk relationship. Global exposure data were estimated for the year 2012, and risk estimates were t ...[more]

PMID: 24779548

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundAccording to the most recent estimates, 842,000 deaths in low- to middle-income countries were attributable to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in 2012. Despite billions of dollars and decades of effort, we still lack a sound understanding of which kinds of WASH interventions are most effective in improving public health outcomes, and an important corollary-whether the right things are being measured. The World Health Organization (WHO) has made a concerted effort to compile comprehensive data on drinking water quality and sanitation in the developing world. A recent 2014 report provides information on three phenotypes (responses): Unsafe Water Deaths, Unsafe Sanitation Deaths, Unsafe Hygiene Deaths; two grouped phenotypes: Unsafe Water and Sanitation Deaths and Unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Deaths; and six explanatory variables (predictors): Improved Sanitation, Unimproved Water Source, Piped Water To Premises, Other Improved Water Source, Filtered and Bottled Water in the Household and Handwashing.Methods and findingsRegression analyses were performed to identify statistically significant associations between these mortality responses and predictors. Good fitted-model performance required: (1) the use of population-normalized death fractions as opposed to number of deaths; (2) transformed response (logit or power); and (3) square-root predictor transformation. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the relationships and countries being studied, these models exhibited remarkable performance and explained, for example, about 85% of the observed variance in population-normalized Unsafe Sanitation Death fraction, with a high F-statistic and highly statistically significant predictor p-values. Similar performance was found for all other responses, which was an unexpected result (the expected associations between responses and predictors-i.e., water-related with water-related, etc. did not occur). The set of statistically significant predictors remains the same across all responses. That is, Unsafe Water Source (UWS), Improved Sanitation (IS) and Filtered and Bottled Water in the Household (FBH) were the only statistically significant predictors whether the response was Unsafe Sanitation Death Fraction, Unsafe Hygiene Death Fraction or Unsafe Water Death Fraction. Moreover, the fraction of variance explained for all fitted models remained relatively high (adjusted R2 ranges from 0.7605 to 0.8533). We find that two of the statistically significant predictors-Improved Sanitation and Unimproved Water Sources-are particularly influential. We also find that some predictors (Piped Water to Premises, Other Improved Water Sources) have very little explanatory power for predicting mortality and one (Other Improved Water Sources) has a counterintuitive effect on response (Unsafe Sanitary Death Fraction increases with increases in OIWS) and one predictor (Hand Washing) to have essentially no explanatory usefulness.ConclusionsOur results suggest that a higher priority may need to be given to improved sanitation than has been the case. Nevertheless, while our focus in this paper is mortality, morbidity is a staggering consequence of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, and lower impact on mortality may not mean a similarly low impact on morbidity. More specifically, those predictors that we found uninfluential for predicting mortality-related responses may indeed be important when morbidity is the response.

Project description:ObjectivesThe impact on diarrhoea of sanitation interventions has been heterogeneous. We hypothesize that this is due to the level of prevailing faecal environmental contamination and propose a Faecal Contamination Index (FAECI) of selected WASH indicators (objective 1). Additionally, we provide estimates of the proportion of the population living in communities above certain sanitation coverage levels (objective 2).MethodsObjective 1: Faecal contamination post-intervention was estimated from WASH intervention reports. WASH indicators composing the FAECI included eight water, sanitation and hygiene practice indicators, which were selected for their relevance for health and data availability at study- and country-level. The association between the estimated level of faecal environmental contamination and diarrhoea was examined using meta-regression. Objective 2: A literature search was conducted to identify health-relevant community sanitation coverage thresholds. To estimate total community coverage with basic sanitation in low- and middle-income countries, at relevant thresholds, household surveys with data available at primary sampling unit (PSU)-level were analysed according to the identified thresholds, at country-, regional- and overall level.ResultsObjective 1: We found a non-linear association between estimated environmental faecal contamination and sanitation interventions' impact on diarrhoeal disease. Diarrhoea reductions were highest at lower faecal contamination levels, and no diarrhoea reduction was found when contamination increased above a certain level. Objective 2: Around 45% of the population lives in communities with more than 75% of coverage with basic sanitation and 24% of the population lives in communities above 95% coverage, respectively.ConclusionsHigh prevailing faecal contamination might explain interventions' poor effectiveness in reducing diarrhoea. The here proposed Faecal Contamination Index is a first attempt to estimate the level of faecal contamination in communities. Much of the world's population currently lives in faecally contaminated environments as indicated by low community sanitation coverage.

Dataset Information

Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low- and middle-income settings: a retrospective analysis of data from 145 countries.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low- and middle-income settings: a retrospective analysis of data from 145 countries.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets