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Yang S, Zheng X, Hou J, Geng B, Luo L, Zhu C, Liu L, Zhu J. Rural revival: Navigating environmental engineering and technology. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 254:119164. [PMID: 38762005 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2024] [Revised: 05/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/20/2024]
Abstract
The necessity for global engineering and technological solutions to address rural environmental challenges is paramount, particularly in improving rural waste treatment and infrastructure. This study presents a comprehensive quantitative analysis of 3901 SCI/SSCI and 3818 Chinese CSCD papers, spanning from 1989 to 2021, using tools like Derwent Data Analyzer and VOSviewer. Our key findings reveal a significant evolution in research focus, including a 716.67% increase in global publications from 1995 to 2008 and a 154.76% surge from 2015 to 2021, highlighting a growing research interest with technological hotspots in rural revitalization engineering and agricultural waste recycling. China and the USA are pivotal, contributing 784 and 714 publications respectively. Prominent institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences play a crucial role, particularly in fecal waste treatment technology. These insights advocate for enhanced policy development and practical implementations to foster inclusive and sustainable rural environments globally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siyuan Yang
- Beijing Institute of Metrology, Beijing, 100012, China
| | - Xiangqun Zheng
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Jiaqi Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China
| | - Bing Geng
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Liangguo Luo
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Changxiong Zhu
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Liyuan Liu
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Jie Zhu
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
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Swarthout J, Mureithi M, Mboya J, Arnold BF, Wolfe MK, Dentz HN, Lin A, Arnold CD, Rao G, Stewart CP, Clasen T, Colford JM, Null C, Pickering AJ. Addressing Fecal Contamination in Rural Kenyan Households: The Roles of Environmental Interventions and Animal Ownership. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:9500-9514. [PMID: 38760010 PMCID: PMC11155254 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c09419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2023] [Revised: 04/17/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024]
Abstract
Combined water, sanitation, and handwashing (WSH) interventions could reduce fecal contamination along more transmission pathways than single interventions alone. We measured Escherichia coli levels in 3909 drinking water samples, 2691 child hand rinses, and 2422 toy ball rinses collected from households enrolled in a 2-year cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating single and combined WSH interventions. Water treatment with chlorine reduced E. coli in drinking water. A combined WSH intervention improved water quality by the same magnitude but did not affect E. coli levels on hands or toys. One potential explanation for the limited impact of the sanitation intervention (upgraded latrines) is failure to address dog and livestock fecal contamination. Small ruminant (goat or sheep) ownership was associated with increased E. coli levels in stored water and on child hands. Cattle and poultry ownership was protective against child stunting, and domesticated animal ownership was not associated with child diarrhea. Our findings do not support restricting household animal ownership to prevent child diarrheal disease or stunting but do support calls for WSH infrastructure that can more effectively reduce household fecal contamination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenna
M. Swarthout
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
| | | | - John Mboya
- Innovations
for Poverty Action, Nairobi 00200, Kenya
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Francis
I. Proctor Foundation, Department of Ophthalmology and Institute for
Global Health Sciences, University of California,
San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94158, United States
| | - Marlene K. Wolfe
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Holly N. Dentz
- Institute
for Global Nutrition, University of California,
Davis, Davis, California 95616, United States
| | - Audrie Lin
- Department
of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States
| | - Charles D. Arnold
- Institute
for Global Nutrition, University of California,
Davis, Davis, California 95616, United States
| | - Gouthami Rao
- Department
of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Christine P. Stewart
- Institute
for Global Nutrition, University of California,
Davis, Davis, California 95616, United States
| | - Thomas Clasen
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - John M. Colford
- School
of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Clair Null
- Mathematica, Washington, District of
Columbia 20002, United States
| | - Amy J. Pickering
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Chan
Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94158, United States
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Braun L, MacDougall A, Sumner T, Adriano Z, Viegas E, Nalá R, Brown J, Knee J, Cumming O. Associations between Shared Sanitation, Stunting and Diarrhoea in Low-Income, High Density Urban Neighbourhoods of Maputo, Mozambique - a Cross-Sectional Study. Matern Child Health J 2024; 28:775-784. [PMID: 38427278 DOI: 10.1007/s10995-024-03924-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Shared sanitation facilities are used by over 500 million people around the world. Most research evidence indicates that shared sanitation conveys higher risk than household sanitation for many adverse health outcomes. However, studies often fail to account for variation between different types of shared facilities. As informal housing development outpaces sanitation infrastructure, it is imperative to understand which components of shared facilities may mitigate the health risks of shared sanitation use. METHODS This cross-sectional study determines whether sanitation improvement or compound hygiene were associated with stunting or diarrhoeal prevalence in children under five living in Maputo, Mozambique who rely on shared sanitation facilities. The study uses logistic and linear multivariable regression analysis to search for associations and control for potential confounding factors. RESULTS 346 children (43.9%) in the study population were stunted. Each unit increase in sanitation score was associated with an approximate decrease of 22% in the odds of stunting (OR: 0.78, CI: 0.66, 0.92), and an increase in height of 0.23 height-for-age z-scores (CI: 0.10, 0.36). There was no evidence that the compound hygiene score was associated with height as measured by stunting (OR: 1.05, CI: 0.87, 1.26) or z-score (-0.06, CI: -0.21, 0.09). Neither sanitation nor compound hygiene score were associated with diarrhoea in the population. CONCLUSIONS Use of an improved shared latrine is associated with decreased odds of stunting. There is no evidence of an association between latrine improvement and diarrhoea. Further investigation is necessary to isolate attributes of shared sanitation facilities that may reduce health risks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Braun
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
| | - Amy MacDougall
- Department of Medical Statistics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Trent Sumner
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA
| | | | - Edna Viegas
- Instituto Nacional de Saúde Maputo, Maputo, Mozambique
| | - Rassul Nalá
- Instituto Nacional de Saúde Maputo, Maputo, Mozambique
| | - Joe Brown
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Jackie Knee
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Oliver Cumming
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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Nguyen AT, Grembi JA, Riviere M, Barratt Heitmann G, Hutson WD, Athni TS, Patil A, Ercumen A, Lin A, Crider Y, Mertens A, Unicomb L, Rahman M, Luby SP, Arnold BF, Benjamin-Chung J. Influence of Temperature and Precipitation on the Effectiveness of Water, Sanitation, and Handwashing Interventions against Childhood Diarrheal Disease in Rural Bangladesh: A Reanalysis of the WASH Benefits Bangladesh Trial. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2024; 132:47006. [PMID: 38602833 PMCID: PMC11008709 DOI: 10.1289/ehp13807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2023] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Diarrheal disease is a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality globally. Household water, sanitation, and handwashing (WASH) interventions can reduce exposure to diarrhea-causing pathogens, but meteorological factors may impact their effectiveness. Information about effect heterogeneity under different weather conditions is critical to refining these targeted interventions. OBJECTIVES We aimed to determine whether temperature and precipitation modified the effect of low-cost, point-of-use WASH interventions on child diarrhea. METHODS We analyzed data from a trial in rural Bangladesh that compared child diarrhea prevalence between clusters (N = 720 ) that were randomized to different WASH interventions between 2012 and 2016 (NCT01590095). We matched temperature and precipitation measurements to diarrhea outcomes (N = 12,440 measurements, 6,921 children) by geographic coordinates and date. We estimated prevalence ratios (PRs) using generative additive models and targeted maximum likelihood estimation to assess the effectiveness of each WASH intervention under different weather conditions. RESULTS Generally, WASH interventions most effectively prevented diarrhea during monsoon season, particularly following weeks with heavy rain or high temperatures. The PR for diarrhea in the WASH interventions group compared with the control group was 0.49 (95% CI: 0.35, 0.68) after 1 d of heavy rainfall, with a less-protective effect [PR = 0.87 (95% CI: 0.60, 1.25)] when there were no days with heavy rainfall. Similarly, the PR for diarrhea in the WASH intervention group compared with the control group was 0.60 (95% CI: 0.48, 0.75) following above-median temperatures vs. 0.91 (95% CI: 0.61, 1.35) following below-median temperatures. The influence of precipitation and temperature varied by intervention type; for precipitation, the largest differences in effectiveness were for the sanitation and combined WASH interventions. DISCUSSION WASH intervention effectiveness was strongly influenced by precipitation and temperature, and nearly all protective effects were observed during the rainy season. Future implementation of these interventions should consider local environmental conditions to maximize effectiveness, including targeted efforts to maintain latrines and promote community adoption ahead of monsoon seasons. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13807.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna T. Nguyen
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Jessica A. Grembi
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Marie Riviere
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | | | - William D. Hutson
- Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
| | - Tejas S. Athni
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Arusha Patil
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Audrie Lin
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA
| | - Yoshika Crider
- King Center on Global Development, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, California, USA
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Uprety S, Ngo I, Maggos M, Dangol B, Sherchan SP, Shisler JL, Amarasiri M, Sano D, Nguyen TH. Multiple pathogen contamination of water, hands, and fomites in rural Nepal and the effect of WaSH interventions. Int J Hyg Environ Health 2024; 257:114341. [PMID: 38442666 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2024.114341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) interventions are the most effective in reducing diarrheal disease severity and prevalence. However, very few studies have investigated the effectiveness of WaSH intervention in reducing pathogen presence and concentration. In this study, we employed a microfluidic PCR approach to quantify twenty bacterial pathogens in water (n = 360), hands (n = 180), and fomite (n = 540) samples collected in rural households of Nepal to assess the pathogen exposures and the effect of WaSH intervention on contamination and exposure rates. The pathogen load and the exposure pathways for each pathogen in intervention and control villages were compared to understand the effects of WaSH intervention. Pathogens were detected in higher frequency and concentration from fomites samples, toilet handle (21.42%; 5.4,0 95%CI: mean log10 of 4.69, 5.96), utensils (23.5%; 5.47, 95%CI: mean log10 of 4.77, 6.77), and water vessels (22.42%; 5.53, 95%CI: mean log10 of 4.79, 6.60) as compared to cleaning water (14.36%; 5.05, 95%CI: mean log10 of 4.36, 5.89), drinking water (14.26%; 4.37, 85%CI: mean log10 of 4.37, 5.87), and hand rinse samples (16.92%; 5.49, 95%CI: mean log10 of 4.77, 6.39). There was no clear evidence that WaSH intervention reduced overall pathogen contamination in any tested pathway. However, we observed a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the prevalence, but not concentration, of some target pathogens, including Enterococcus spp. in the intervention village compared to the control village for water and hands rinse samples. Conversely, no significant reduction in target pathogen concentration was observed for water and hand rinse samples. In swab samples, there was a reduction mostly in pathogen concentration rather than pathogen prevalence, highlighting that a reduction in pathogen prevalence was not always accompanied by a reduction in pathogen concentration. This study provides an understanding of WaSH intervention on microbe concentrations. Such data could help with better planning of intervention activities in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sital Uprety
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec), Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Dübendorf, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tohoku University Sendai, Japan.
| | - Isaac Ngo
- Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Marika Maggos
- Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Bipin Dangol
- Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO), Kathmandu, Nepal
| | - Samendra P Sherchan
- Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO), Kathmandu, Nepal; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA; BioEnvironmental Science Program Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, 21251, USA
| | - Joanna L Shisler
- Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Mohan Amarasiri
- School of Allied Health Sciences, Kitasato University, Sagamihara, Japan
| | - Daisuke Sano
- Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tohoku University Sendai, Japan
| | - Thanh H Nguyen
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
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6
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Butzin-Dozier Z, Ji Y, Coyle J, Malenica I, McQuade ETR, Grembi JA, Platts-Mills JA, Houpt ER, Graham JP, Ali S, Rahman MZ, Alauddin M, Famida SL, Akther S, Hossen MS, Mutsuddi P, Shoab AK, Rahman M, Islam MO, Miah R, Taniuchi M, Liu J, Alauddin S, Stewart CP, Luby SP, Colford JM, Hubbard AE, Mertens AN, Lin A. Treatment Heterogeneity of Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Nutrition Interventions on Child Growth by Environmental Enteric Dysfunction and Pathogen Status for Young Children in Bangladesh. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.03.21.24304684. [PMID: 38585931 PMCID: PMC10996736 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.21.24304684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
Background Water, sanitation, hygiene (WSH), nutrition (N), and combined (N+WSH) interventions are often implemented by global health organizations, but WSH interventions may insufficiently reduce pathogen exposure, and nutrition interventions may be modified by environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a condition of increased intestinal permeability and inflammation. This study investigated the heterogeneity of these treatments' effects based on individual pathogen and EED biomarker status with respect to child linear growth. Methods We applied cross-validated targeted maximum likelihood estimation and super learner ensemble machine learning to assess the conditional treatment effects in subgroups defined by biomarker and pathogen status. We analyzed treatment (N+WSH, WSH, N, or control) randomly assigned in-utero, child pathogen and EED data at 14 months of age, and child LAZ at 28 months of age. We estimated the difference in mean child length for age Z-score (LAZ) under the treatment rule and the difference in stratified treatment effect (treatment effect difference) comparing children with high versus low pathogen/biomarker status while controlling for baseline covariates. Results We analyzed data from 1,522 children, who had median LAZ of -1.56. We found that myeloperoxidase (N+WSH treatment effect difference 0.0007 LAZ, WSH treatment effect difference 0.1032 LAZ, N treatment effect difference 0.0037 LAZ) and Campylobacter infection (N+WSH treatment effect difference 0.0011 LAZ, WSH difference 0.0119 LAZ, N difference 0.0255 LAZ) were associated with greater effect of all interventions on growth. In other words, children with high myeloperoxidase or Campylobacter infection experienced a greater impact of the interventions on growth. We found that a treatment rule that assigned the N+WSH (LAZ difference 0.23, 95% CI (0.05, 0.41)) and WSH (LAZ difference 0.17, 95% CI (0.04, 0.30)) interventions based on EED biomarkers and pathogens increased predicted child growth compared to the randomly allocated intervention. Conclusions These findings indicate that EED biomarker and pathogen status, particularly Campylobacter and myeloperoxidase (a measure of gut inflammation), may be related to impact of N+WSH, WSH, and N interventions on child linear growth.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yunwen Ji
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Jeremy Coyle
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Ivana Malenica
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | | | - Jessica Anne Grembi
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
| | | | - Eric R. Houpt
- School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Jay P. Graham
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Shahjahan Ali
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md Ziaur Rahman
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mohammad Alauddin
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Syeda L. Famida
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Salma Akther
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Saheen Hossen
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Palash Mutsuddi
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Abul K. Shoab
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Ohedul Islam
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Rana Miah
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mami Taniuchi
- School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Jie Liu
- School of Public Health, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
| | | | | | - Stephen P. Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA
| | - John M. Colford
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Andrew N. Mertens
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Audrie Lin
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA USA
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7
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Contreras JD, Islam M, Mertens A, Pickering AJ, Arnold BF, Benjamin-Chung J, Hubbard AE, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Luby SP, Colford JM, Ercumen A. Improved Child Feces Management Mediates Reductions in Childhood Diarrhea from an On-Site Sanitation Intervention: Causal Mediation Analysis of a Cluster-Randomized Trial in Rural Bangladesh. J Epidemiol Glob Health 2024:10.1007/s44197-024-00210-y. [PMID: 38507184 DOI: 10.1007/s44197-024-00210-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The WASH benefits Bangladesh trial multi-component sanitation intervention reduced diarrheal disease among children < 5 years. Intervention components included latrine upgrades, child feces management tools, and behavioral promotion. It remains unclear which components most impacted diarrhea. METHODS We conducted mediation analysis within a subset of households (n = 720) from the sanitation and control arms. Potential mediators were categorized into indicators of latrine quality, latrine use practices, and feces management practices. We estimated average causal mediation effects (ACME) as prevalence differences (PD), defined as the intervention's effect on diarrhea through its effect on the mediator. RESULTS The intervention improved all indicators compared to controls. We found significant mediation through multiple latrine use and feces management practice indicators. The strongest mediators during monsoon seasons were reduced open defecation among children aged < 3 and 3-8 years, and increased disposal of child feces into latrines. The strongest mediators during dry seasons were access to a flush/pour-flush latrine, reduced open defecation among children aged 3-8 years, and increased disposal of child feces into latrines. Individual mediation effects were small (PD = 0.5-2 percentage points) compared to the overall intervention effect but collectively describe significant mediation pathways. DISCUSSION The effect of the WASH Benefits Bangladesh sanitation intervention on diarrheal disease was mediated through improved child feces management and reduced child open defecation. Although the intervention significantly improved latrine quality, relatively high latrine quality at baseline may have limited benefits from additional improvements. Targeting safe child feces management may increase the health benefits of rural sanitation interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesse D Contreras
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103, USA
| | - Mahfuza Islam
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Amy J Pickering
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
| | - Benjamin F Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Alan E Hubbard
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - John M Colford
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
- Jordan Hall Addition 2225, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA.
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8
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Sahiledengle B, Mwanri L, Petrucka P, Tadesse H, Agho KE. Co-existence of maternal overweight/obesity, child undernutrition, and anaemia among mother-child pairs in Ethiopia. PLOS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2024; 4:e0002831. [PMID: 38452001 PMCID: PMC10919671 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002831] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/09/2024]
Abstract
Ethiopia is currently known to be the most food-insecure country in sub-Saharan Africa, where childhood undernutrition remains endemic. While attention is increasingly being paid to childhood undernutrition in Ethiopia, a current surge of "triple burden of malnutrition" (TBM) has received less attention. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of TBM and identify the associated factors in Ethiopia. Data were from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys (2005-2016) and a total of 20,994 mother-child pairs were examined in this study. The TBM was our primary outcome variable, which encompasses three types of nutritional problems-when a mother may be overweight/obese, while her child is stunted, wasted, or underweight plus has anaemia under the same roof. A multilevel logistic regression explored the individual- and community-level factors associated with TBM. Our study indicated that children under-five years of age were anaemic, stunted, wasted, and underweight [49.3% (95% CI: 48.7-49.9), 43.1% (95% CI: 42.4-43.7), 10.3% (95% CI: 9.9-10.7), and 27.6% (95% CI: 27.0-28.1)] respectively. The overall prevalence of TBM was 2.6% (95% CI: 2.39-2.83). Multilevel analyses revealed that TBM was more likely to occur among children aged 12-23 months (AOR: 2.54, 95% CI: 1.68-3.83), 24-35 months (AOR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.03-2.29), children perceived by their mothers to be smaller than normal at birth (AOR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.48-2.56), who experienced fever in the past 2 weeks (AOR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.24-2.01), and lived in urban settings (AOR: 1.79, 95% CI: 1.13-2.86). Lower odds of TBM were reported among female children (AOR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.47-0.72), and those who lived in rich households (AOR: 0.69: 95% CI: 0.49-0.98). TBM was found to be present in almost three percent of households in Ethiopia. Addressing the TBM through double-duty actions will be of critical importance in achieving malnutrition in all its forms in Ethiopia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Biniyam Sahiledengle
- Department of Public Health, Madda Walabu University Goba Referral Hospital, Bale-Goba, Ethiopia
| | - Lillian Mwanri
- Research Centre for Public Health Research, Equity and Human Flourishing, Torrens University Australia, Adelaide Campus, Adelaide, South Australia
| | - Pammla Petrucka
- College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
| | - Hiwot Tadesse
- Department of Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
| | - Kingsley Emwinyore Agho
- School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Translational Health Research Institute, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown Campus, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
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9
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Ante-Testard PA, Rerolle F, Nguyen AT, Ashraf S, Parvez SM, Naser AM, Benmarhnia T, Rahman M, Luby SP, Benjamin-Chung J, Arnold BF. WASH interventions and child diarrhea at the interface of climate and socioeconomic position in Bangladesh. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1556. [PMID: 38378704 PMCID: PMC10879131 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45624-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Many diarrhea-causing pathogens are climate-sensitive, and populations with the lowest socioeconomic position (SEP) are often most vulnerable to climate-related transmission. Household Water, Sanitation, and Handwashing (WASH) interventions constitute one potential effective strategy to reduce child diarrhea, especially among low-income households. Capitalizing on a cluster randomized trial population (360 clusters, 4941 children with 8440 measurements) in rural Bangladesh, one of the world's most climate-sensitive regions, we show that improved WASH substantially reduces diarrhea risk with largest benefits among children with lowest SEP and during the monsoon season. We extrapolated trial results to rural Bangladesh regions using high-resolution geospatial layers to identify areas most likely to benefit. Scaling up a similar intervention could prevent an estimated 734 (95% CI 385, 1085) cases per 1000 children per month during the seasonal monsoon, with marked regional heterogeneities. Here, we show how to extend large-scale trials to inform WASH strategies among climate-sensitive and low-income populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pearl Anne Ante-Testard
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation and Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Francois Rerolle
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation and Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Anna T Nguyen
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Sania Ashraf
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Sarker Masud Parvez
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
- Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, South Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Abu Mohammed Naser
- Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Tarik Benmarhnia
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Health and WASH, Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
| | - Benjamin F Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation and Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
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10
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Arnold BF, Rerolle F, Tedijanto C, Njenga SM, Rahman M, Ercumen A, Mertens A, Pickering AJ, Lin A, Arnold CD, Das K, Stewart CP, Null C, Luby SP, Colford JM, Hubbard AE, Benjamin-Chung J. Geographic pair matching in large-scale cluster randomized trials. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1069. [PMID: 38316755 PMCID: PMC10844220 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45152-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Cluster randomized trials are often used to study large-scale public health interventions. In large trials, even small improvements in statistical efficiency can have profound impacts on the required sample size and cost. Location integrates many socio-demographic and environmental characteristics into a single, readily available feature. Here we show that pair matching by geographic location leads to substantial gains in statistical efficiency for 14 child health outcomes that span growth, development, and infectious disease through a re-analysis of two large-scale trials of nutritional and environmental interventions in Bangladesh and Kenya. Relative efficiencies from pair matching are ≥1.1 for all outcomes and regularly exceed 2.0, meaning an unmatched trial would need to enroll at least twice as many clusters to achieve the same level of precision as the geographically pair matched design. We also show that geographically pair matched designs enable estimation of fine-scale, spatially varying effect heterogeneity under minimal assumptions. Our results demonstrate broad, substantial benefits of geographic pair matching in large-scale, cluster randomized trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin F Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Francois Rerolle
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Christine Tedijanto
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Sammy M Njenga
- Eastern and Southern Africa Centre of International Parasite Control, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Amy J Pickering
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Audrie Lin
- Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Charles D Arnold
- Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Kishor Das
- CURAM, SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | | | | | - Stephen P Luby
- Infectious diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - John M Colford
- Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Alan E Hubbard
- Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, CA, USA
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11
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Jung DK, Tan ST, Hemlock C, Mertens AN, Stewart CP, Rahman MZ, Ali S, Raqib R, Grembi JA, Karim MR, Shahriar S, Roy AK, Abdelrahman S, Shoab AK, Famida SL, Hossen MS, Mutsuddi P, Akther S, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Hester L, Granger DA, Erhardt J, Naved RT, Al Mamun MM, Parvin K, Colford JM, Fernald LC, Luby SP, Dhabhar FS, Lin A. Micronutrient status during pregnancy is associated with child immune status in rural Bangladesh. Curr Dev Nutr 2023; 7:101969. [PMID: 37560460 PMCID: PMC10407622 DOI: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2023.101969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Poor immune function increases children's risk of infection and mortality. Several maternal factors during pregnancy may affect infant immune function during the postnatal period. Objectives We aimed to evaluate whether maternal micronutrients, stress, estriol, and immune status during the first or second trimester of pregnancy were associated with child immune status in the first two years after birth. Methods We conducted observational analyses within the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) Benefits Bangladesh randomized controlled trial. We measured biomarkers in 575 pregnant women and postnatally in their children. Maternal biomarkers measured during the first and second trimester of pregnancy included nutrition status via vitamin D (25-hydroxy-D [25(OH)D]), ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and retinol-binding protein (RBP); cortisol; estriol. Immune markers were assessed in pregnant women at enrollment and their children at ages 14 and 28 mo, including C-reactive protein (CRP), alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), and 13 cytokines (including IFN-γ). We generated a standardized sum score of log-transformed cytokines. We analyzed IFN-γ individually because it is a critical immunoregulatory cytokine. All outcomes were prespecified. We used generalized additive models and reported the mean difference and 95% confidence intervals at the 25th and 75th percentiles of exposure distribution. Results At child age 14 mo, concentrations of maternal RBP were inversely associated with the cytokine sum score in children (-0.34 adjusted difference between the 25th and 75th percentile [95% confidence interval -0.61, -0.07]), and maternal vitamin A deficiency was positively associated with the cytokine sum score in children (1.02 [0.13, 1.91]). At child age of 28 mo, maternal RBP was positively associated with IFN-γ in children (0.07 [0.01, 0.14]), whereas maternal vitamin A deficiency was negatively associated with child AGP (-0.07 [-0.13, -0.02]). Maternal iron deficiency was associated with higher AGP concentrations in children at age 14 mo (0.13 [0.04, 0.23]), and maternal sTfR concentrations were positively associated with child CRP concentrations at age 28 mo (0.18 [0, 0.36]). Conclusion Maternal deficiencies in vitamin A or iron during the first 2 trimesters of pregnancy may shape the trajectory of a child's immune status.
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Affiliation(s)
- Da Kyung Jung
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Sophia T. Tan
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Caitlin Hemlock
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Andrew N. Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Christine P. Stewart
- Institute for Global Nutrition, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Md Ziaur Rahman
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Shahjahan Ali
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Rubhana Raqib
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Jessica A. Grembi
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Mohammed Rabiul Karim
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Sunny Shahriar
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Anjan Kumar Roy
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Sarah Abdelrahman
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Abul K. Shoab
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Syeda L. Famida
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Md Saheen Hossen
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Palash Mutsuddi
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Salma Akther
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Lisa Hester
- Department of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD USA
| | - Douglas A. Granger
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | | | | | - Md Mahfuz Al Mamun
- Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Kausar Parvin
- Health System and Population Studies Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - John M. Colford
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Lia C.H. Fernald
- Division of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Firdaus S. Dhabhar
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States
| | - Audrie Lin
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, United States
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12
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Quarpong W, Wakoli S, Oiye S, Williams AM. Interpreting alignment to the EAT-Lancet diet using dietary intakes of lactating mothers in rural Western Kenya. MATERNAL & CHILD NUTRITION 2023; 19:e13512. [PMID: 36999246 DOI: 10.1111/mcn.13512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Revised: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The EAT-Lancet reference diet intends to be good for planetary and human health. We compared single multiple pass method 24-h dietary intake of mothers (n = 242) from a cross-sectional study in Western Kenya to the recommended range of intake of 11 EAT-Lancet food groups (e.g., 0-100 g/day legumes; maximum score 11), defining alignment two ways: daily intake among food groups where a minimum intake of 0 g was either acceptable or unacceptable. Ordinal logistic regression models assessed associations between alignment and body mass index (BMI). Cost of mothers' diets and hypothetical diets within recommended ranges (lower bounds >0 g) were estimated using food price data from markets within the mothers' locality. Mean energy intake was 1827 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1731-1924) kcal/day. Relative to the EAT-Lancet diet, mothers' diets were on average higher for grains; within recommendations for tubers, fish, beef and dairy; closer to lower bounds for chicken, eggs, legumes and nuts; and lower for fruits and vegetables. Mean (95% CI) alignment scores were 8.2 (8.0-8.3) when 0 g intakes were acceptable and 1.7 (1.6-1.9) otherwise. No significant associations were found between alignment and BMI. Mothers' diets and hypothetical diets within recommended ranges averaged 184.6 KES (1.6 USD) and 357.5 KES (3.0 USD)/person/day, respectively. Lactating mothers' diets were not diverse and diverged from the reference diet when an intake of 0 g was considered unacceptable. Lower bound intakes of 0 g for micronutrient-dense food groups are inappropriate in food-insecure populations. It would likely cost more than mothers currently spend to tailor their diets to the EAT-Lancet reference diet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wilhemina Quarpong
- Nutrition and Health Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | | | - Shadrack Oiye
- Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Djibouti City, Djibouti
| | - Anne M Williams
- Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Division of Sciences, Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
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13
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Arnold BF, Rerolle F, Tedijanto C, Njenga SM, Rahman M, Ercumen A, Mertens A, Pickering A, Lin A, Arnold CD, Das K, Stewart CP, Null C, Luby SP, Colford JM, Hubbard AE, Benjamin-Chung J. Geographic pair-matching in large-scale cluster randomized trials. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.04.30.23289317. [PMID: 37205361 PMCID: PMC10187339 DOI: 10.1101/2023.04.30.23289317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Custer randomized trials are often used to study large-scale public health interventions. In large trials, even small improvements in statistical efficiency can have profound impacts on the required sample size and cost. Pair matched randomization is one strategy with potential to increase trial efficiency, but to our knowledge there have been no empirical evaluations of pair-matching in large-scale, epidemiologic field trials. Location integrates many socio-demographic and environmental characteristics into a single feature. Here, we show that geographic pair-matching leads to substantial gains in statistical efficiency for 14 child health outcomes that span growth, development, and infectious disease through a re-analysis of two large-scale trials of nutritional and environmental interventions in Bangladesh and Kenya. We estimate relative efficiencies ≥1.1 for all outcomes assessed and relative efficiencies regularly exceed 2.0, meaning an unmatched trial would have needed to enroll at least twice as many clusters to achieve the same level of precision as the geographically pair-matched design. We also show that geographically pair-matched designs enable estimation of fine-scale, spatially varying effect heterogeneity under minimal assumptions. Our results demonstrate broad, substantial benefits of geographic pair-matching in large-scale, cluster randomized trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin F. Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Francois Rerolle
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Christine Tedijanto
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Sammy M. Njenga
- Eastern and Southern Africa Centre of International Parasite Control, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Amy Pickering
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA
| | - Audrie Lin
- Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | | | - Kishor Das
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | | | | | - Stephen P. Luby
- Infectious diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - John M. Colford
- Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, CA, USA
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14
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Powers JE, Mureithi M, Mboya J, Campolo J, Swarthout JM, Pajka J, Null C, Pickering AJ. Effects of High Temperature and Heavy Precipitation on Drinking Water Quality and Child Hand Contamination Levels in Rural Kenya. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:6975-6988. [PMID: 37071701 PMCID: PMC10157894 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c07284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Climate change may impact human health through the influence of weather on environmental transmission of diarrhea. Previous studies have found that high temperatures and heavy precipitation are associated with increased diarrhea prevalence, but the underlying causal mechanisms have not been tested and validated. We linked measurements of Escherichia coli in source water (n = 1673), stored drinking water (n = 9692), and hand rinses from children <2 years old (n = 2634) with publicly available gridded temperature and precipitation data (at ≤0.2 degree spatial resolution and daily temporal resolution) by the GPS coordinates and date of sample collection. Measurements were collected over a 3-year period across a 2500 km2 area in rural Kenya. In drinking water sources, high 7-day temperature was associated with a 0.16 increase in log10 E. coli levels (p < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.24), while heavy 7-day total precipitation was associated with a 0.29 increase in log10 E. coli levels (p < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.44). In household stored drinking water, heavy 7-day precipitation was associated with a 0.079 increase in log10 E. coli levels (p = 0.042, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.24). Heavy precipitation did not increase E. coli levels among respondents who treated their water, suggesting that water treatment can mitigate effects on water quality. On child hands, high 7-day temperature was associated with a 0.39 decrease in log10 E. coli levels (p < 0.001, 95% CI: -0.52, -0.27). Our findings provide insight on how climate change could impact environmental transmission of bacterial pathogens in Kenya. We suggest water treatment is especially important after heavy precipitation (particularly when preceded by dry periods) and high temperatures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie E Powers
- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94704, United States
| | - Maryanne Mureithi
- Innovations for Poverty Action, Sandalwood Lane, Nairobi 00500, Kenya
| | - John Mboya
- Innovations for Poverty Action, Sandalwood Lane, Nairobi 00500, Kenya
| | - Jake Campolo
- Farmers Business Network, San Carlos, California 94070, United States
| | | | - Joseph Pajka
- Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
| | - Clair Null
- Mathematica, Washington, D.C. 20002, United States
| | - Amy J Pickering
- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94704, United States
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, California 94158, United States
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15
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Takele H, Alemayehu M, Geberu DM. Outcome evaluation of WASH intervention in rural households at Jawi district, Northwest Ethiopia: Mixed method design, goal based evaluation. EVALUATION AND PROGRAM PLANNING 2023; 98:102283. [PMID: 37084492 DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2023.102283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The government of Ethiopia revealed that GTP II and SDG were achieved through one Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program. According to the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health survey, the rural population was more affected by poor sanitation and hygiene. To address this Ethiopian government ratified Rural WASH sanitation and hygiene promotion through a community-centered approach, and to improve WASH service evidence on the effectiveness of an intervention at the household level is needed in developing countries. However, in our country one WASH in rural areas called community centered approach intervention was planned and delivered for 3 years (2018-2020) Nevertheless, as to our review and researchers knowledge, the outcome of this intervention is not evaluated yet in our country as well as in this evaluation study area. METHOD The evaluation was conducted in rural households of Jawi district by a Quasi-experimental design supplemented with a qualitative in-depth interview, from 01/14/2021-3/28/2021 and 4/22/2021-5/25/2021 for quanitative and qualitative study, respectively. Intervention groups were households that took WASH intervention while the controls did not. The evaluation approach was summative and counterfactual plus participatory and focuses on program outcome. A total of 1280 households were selected using two stage sampling with lottery method simple random sampling. We collected quantitative data through survey and structured observational checklist, while qualitative data through key informant interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. We assessed program effectiveness and also the analytical study was conducted through propensity score matching to assess program effect through Stata 14.1. Qualitative data were transcribed and translated to English and thematic analysis was done using Atlas.ti.9. RESULT The overall program effectiveness was very good but the effectiveness in handwashing before eating using soap and water was poor. Also, this intervention increased water treatment utilization in 41.7% point (ATT=0.417, 95% CI= 0.356, 0.478), 24.3% point (ATT =0.243, 95%CI=0.180, 0.300) in exclusive latrine utilization, 41.9% point (ATT=0.419, 95%CI = 0.376, 0.470) in handwashing using water and soap before eating, 50.2% point(ATT=0.502, 95%CI=0.450, 0.550) in handwashing after defecation by using water and soap in intervention households. Our qualitative finding revealed that unable to afford soap and their working place far away from their home were the most frequent reason reported by the respondent for not using soap for hand washing and latrine utilization respectively CONCLUSIONS: This intervention should be scale-up and pay greater attention and deliver innovative strategies to the improvement of handwashing practice and exclusive latrine utilization. AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS The data sets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Affiliation(s)
- Habtamu Takele
- Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
| | - Mekuriaw Alemayehu
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
| | - Demiss Mulatu Geberu
- Department of Health Systems and Policy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
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Gebretsadik GG, Abraha M, Bereket T, Hailemariam F, Gebrearegay F, Hagos T, Assefa M, Berhe K, Gebregziabher H, Adhanu AK, Haileselassie M, Gebregziabher M, Mulugeta A. Prevalence and multi-level factors associated with acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months from war affected communities of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, 2021: a cross-sectional study. Confl Health 2023; 17:10. [PMID: 36934256 PMCID: PMC10024843 DOI: 10.1186/s13031-023-00508-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/20/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Armed conflicts greatly affect the health, nutrition, and food security of conflict affected settings particularly children. However, no empirical data exist regarding context specific factors contributing towards acute malnutrition in the war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia. Thus, this study aimed to identify individual and community level factors associated with acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months from armed conflict affected settings of Tigray, Ethiopia. METHODS A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 3,614 children aged 6-59 months in Tigray, from July 15 to Aug 15, 2021. Study participants were selected using a two-stage random sampling method. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data by interviewing mothers/caregivers. Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements were taken from upper left arm of the children using MUAC tapes. Multivariable multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with acute malnutrition. Adjusted Odds ratio (AOR) with 95% CI were estimated to describe the strength of associations at p < 0.05. RESULTS More than half (52.5%) of the sampled children were males in sex. Immediately after the first nine months into the conflict, the prevalence of severe, moderate, and global acute malnutrition was very high (5.1%, 21.8%, and 26.9%, respectively) in Tigray. The lowest and highest burden of child acute malnutrition was reported from Mekelle zone (13.3%) and Southeastern zone (36.7%), respectively. Individual-level factors such as older child age (AOR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.10, 0.18), female child sex (AOR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.05, 1.480.95), Vitamin-A supplementation (AOR = 1.3, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.65), and history of diarrhea (AOR = 1.22, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.53) and community-level factors like unimproved drinking water source (AOR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.08, 1.58), unimproved toilet facility (AOR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.52), and severe food insecurity (AOR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.16. 2.07) were significantly associated with childhood acute malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS The burden of acute malnutrition is a severe public health problem in Tigray. To prevent the untimely suffering and death of children, regular nutrition screening, speedy, and appropriate referral of all malnourished children to nutritional services and large-scale humanitarian assistance including access to food; nutrition supplies; water, sanitation and hygiene supplies; and health care in a timely manner are required. In the prevailing armed conflict, these have been very difficult to achieve. Thus, immediate international intervention is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mahlet Abraha
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Tedros Bereket
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Ferehiwot Hailemariam
- Department of Environmental Health and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Freweini Gebrearegay
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Tigist Hagos
- Department of Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | | | - Kidanemaryam Berhe
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Hadush Gebregziabher
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Amaha Kahsay Adhanu
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Mekonnen Haileselassie
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Mulugeta Gebregziabher
- Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA
| | - Afework Mulugeta
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
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Assessing sustained uptake of latrine and child feces management interventions: Extended follow-up of a cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh 1-3.5 years after intervention initiation. Int J Hyg Environ Health 2023; 250:114149. [PMID: 36913791 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2023.114149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2022] [Revised: 01/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sanitation interventions typically result in modest increases in latrine access, and any gains in latrine access and use are often not sustained over time. Sanitation programs also rarely include child-focused interventions such as potties. We aimed to assess the sustained effect of a multi-component sanitation intervention on access to and use of latrines and child feces management tools in rural Bangladesh. METHODS We conducted a longitudinal substudy nested within the WASH Benefits randomized controlled trial. The trial provided latrine upgrades, child potties and sani-scoops for feces removal, along with behavior change promotion to encourage use of the delivered hardware. Promotion visits to intervention recipients were frequent during the first 2 years after intervention initiation, decreased in frequency between years 2-3, and ceased after 3 years. We enrolled a random subset of 720 households from the sanitation and control arms of the trial in a substudy and visited them quarterly between 1 and 3.5 years after intervention initiation. At each visit, field staff recorded sanitation-related behaviors through spot-check observations and structured questionnaires. We assessed intervention effects on observed indicators of hygienic latrine access, potty use and sani-scoop use and investigated whether these effects were modified by duration of follow-up, ongoing behavior change promotion and household characteristics. RESULTS The intervention increased hygienic latrine access from 37% among controls to 94% in the sanitation arm (p < 0.001). Access among intervention recipients remained high 3.5 years after intervention initiation, including periods with no active promotion. Gains in access were higher among households with less education, less wealth and larger number of residents. The intervention increased availability of child potties from 29% among controls to 98% in the sanitation arm (p < 0.001). However, fewer than 25% of intervention households reported exclusive child defecation in a potty or had observed indicators of potty and sani-scoop use, and gains in potty use declined over the follow-up period, even with ongoing promotion. CONCLUSION Our findings from an intervention that provided free products and intensive initial behavior change promotion suggest a sustained increase in hygienic latrine access up to 3.5 years after intervention initiation but infrequent use of child feces management tools. Studies should investigate strategies to ensure sustained adoption of safe child feces management practices.
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Jefferson T, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, van Driel ML, Bawazeer GA, Jones MA, Hoffmann TC, Clark J, Beller EM, Glasziou PP, Conly JM. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2023; 1:CD006207. [PMID: 36715243 PMCID: PMC9885521 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.cd006207.pub6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 47.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Viral epidemics or pandemics of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) pose a global threat. Examples are influenza (H1N1) caused by the H1N1pdm09 virus in 2009, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Antiviral drugs and vaccines may be insufficient to prevent their spread. This is an update of a Cochrane Review last published in 2020. We include results from studies from the current COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness of physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of acute respiratory viruses. SEARCH METHODS We searched CENTRAL, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and two trials registers in October 2022, with backwards and forwards citation analysis on the new studies. SELECTION CRITERIA We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster-RCTs investigating physical interventions (screening at entry ports, isolation, quarantine, physical distancing, personal protection, hand hygiene, face masks, glasses, and gargling) to prevent respiratory virus transmission. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used standard Cochrane methodological procedures. MAIN RESULTS We included 11 new RCTs and cluster-RCTs (610,872 participants) in this update, bringing the total number of RCTs to 78. Six of the new trials were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic; two from Mexico, and one each from Denmark, Bangladesh, England, and Norway. We identified four ongoing studies, of which one is completed, but unreported, evaluating masks concurrent with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many studies were conducted during non-epidemic influenza periods. Several were conducted during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and others in epidemic influenza seasons up to 2016. Therefore, many studies were conducted in the context of lower respiratory viral circulation and transmission compared to COVID-19. The included studies were conducted in heterogeneous settings, ranging from suburban schools to hospital wards in high-income countries; crowded inner city settings in low-income countries; and an immigrant neighbourhood in a high-income country. Adherence with interventions was low in many studies. The risk of bias for the RCTs and cluster-RCTs was mostly high or unclear. Medical/surgical masks compared to no masks We included 12 trials (10 cluster-RCTs) comparing medical/surgical masks versus no masks to prevent the spread of viral respiratory illness (two trials with healthcare workers and 10 in the community). Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks (risk ratio (RR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84 to 1.09; 9 trials, 276,917 participants; moderate-certainty evidence. Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza/SARS-CoV-2 compared to not wearing masks (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.42; 6 trials, 13,919 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Harms were rarely measured and poorly reported (very low-certainty evidence). N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks We pooled trials comparing N95/P2 respirators with medical/surgical masks (four in healthcare settings and one in a household setting). We are very uncertain on the effects of N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks on the outcome of clinical respiratory illness (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.45 to 1.10; 3 trials, 7779 participants; very low-certainty evidence). N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks may be effective for ILI (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.03; 5 trials, 8407 participants; low-certainty evidence). Evidence is limited by imprecision and heterogeneity for these subjective outcomes. The use of a N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks probably makes little or no difference for the objective and more precise outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza infection (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.34; 5 trials, 8407 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Restricting pooling to healthcare workers made no difference to the overall findings. Harms were poorly measured and reported, but discomfort wearing medical/surgical masks or N95/P2 respirators was mentioned in several studies (very low-certainty evidence). One previously reported ongoing RCT has now been published and observed that medical/surgical masks were non-inferior to N95 respirators in a large study of 1009 healthcare workers in four countries providing direct care to COVID-19 patients. Hand hygiene compared to control Nineteen trials compared hand hygiene interventions with controls with sufficient data to include in meta-analyses. Settings included schools, childcare centres and homes. Comparing hand hygiene interventions with controls (i.e. no intervention), there was a 14% relative reduction in the number of people with ARIs in the hand hygiene group (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.90; 9 trials, 52,105 participants; moderate-certainty evidence), suggesting a probable benefit. In absolute terms this benefit would result in a reduction from 380 events per 1000 people to 327 per 1000 people (95% CI 308 to 342). When considering the more strictly defined outcomes of ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza, the estimates of effect for ILI (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.81 to 1.09; 11 trials, 34,503 participants; low-certainty evidence), and laboratory-confirmed influenza (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.63 to 1.30; 8 trials, 8332 participants; low-certainty evidence), suggest the intervention made little or no difference. We pooled 19 trials (71, 210 participants) for the composite outcome of ARI or ILI or influenza, with each study only contributing once and the most comprehensive outcome reported. Pooled data showed that hand hygiene may be beneficial with an 11% relative reduction of respiratory illness (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.94; low-certainty evidence), but with high heterogeneity. In absolute terms this benefit would result in a reduction from 200 events per 1000 people to 178 per 1000 people (95% CI 166 to 188). Few trials measured and reported harms (very low-certainty evidence). We found no RCTs on gowns and gloves, face shields, or screening at entry ports. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions. There were additional RCTs during the pandemic related to physical interventions but a relative paucity given the importance of the question of masking and its relative effectiveness and the concomitant measures of mask adherence which would be highly relevant to the measurement of effectiveness, especially in the elderly and in young children. There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect. The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes. Harms associated with physical interventions were under-investigated. There is a need for large, well-designed RCTs addressing the effectiveness of many of these interventions in multiple settings and populations, as well as the impact of adherence on effectiveness, especially in those most at risk of ARIs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Jefferson
- Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JA, UK
| | - Liz Dooley
- Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Eliana Ferroni
- Epidemiological System of the Veneto Region, Regional Center for Epidemiology, Veneto Region, Padova, Italy
| | - Lubna A Al-Ansary
- Department of Family and Community Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mieke L van Driel
- General Practice Clinical Unit, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Ghada A Bawazeer
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mark A Jones
- Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Tammy C Hoffmann
- Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Justin Clark
- Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Elaine M Beller
- Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Paul P Glasziou
- Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - John M Conly
- Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Room AGW5, SSB, Foothills Medical Centre, Calgary, Canada
- O'Brien Institute for Public Health and Synder Institute for Chronic Diseases, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Calgary Zone, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada
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Brouwer AF, Eisenberg MC, Bakker KM, Boerger SN, Zahid MH, Freeman MC, Eisenberg JNS. Leveraging infectious disease models to interpret randomized controlled trials: Controlling enteric pathogen transmission through water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010748. [DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Revised: 12/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluate hypotheses in specific contexts and are often considered the gold standard of evidence for infectious disease interventions, but their results cannot immediately generalize to other contexts (e.g., different populations, interventions, or disease burdens). Mechanistic models are one approach to generalizing findings between contexts, but infectious disease transmission models (IDTMs) are not immediately suited for analyzing RCTs, since they often rely on time-series surveillance data. We developed an IDTM framework to explain relative risk outcomes of an infectious disease RCT and applied it to a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) RCT. This model can generalize the RCT results to other contexts and conditions. We developed this compartmental IDTM framework to account for key WASH RCT factors: i) transmission across multiple environmental pathways, ii) multiple interventions applied individually and in combination, iii) adherence to interventions or preexisting conditions, and iv) the impact of individuals not enrolled in the study. We employed a hybrid sampling and estimation framework to obtain posterior estimates of mechanistic parameter sets consistent with empirical outcomes. We illustrated our model using WASH Benefits Bangladesh RCT data (n = 17,187). Our model reproduced reported diarrheal prevalence in this RCT. The baseline estimate of the basic reproduction number R 0 for the control arm (1.10, 95% CrI: 1.07, 1.16) corresponded to an endemic prevalence of 9.5% (95% CrI: 7.4, 13.7%) in the absence of interventions or preexisting WASH conditions. No single pathway was likely able to sustain transmission: pathway-specific R 0 s for water, fomites, and all other pathways were 0.42 (95% CrI: 0.03, 0.97), 0.20 (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.59), and 0.48 (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.94), respectively. An IDTM approach to evaluating RCTs can complement RCT analysis by providing a rigorous framework for generating data-driven hypotheses that explain trial findings, particularly unexpected null results, opening up existing data to deeper epidemiological understanding.
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Workman CL, Stoler J, Harris A, Ercumen A, Kearns J, Mapunda KM. Food, water, and sanitation insecurities: Complex linkages and implications for achieving WASH security. Glob Public Health 2022; 17:3060-3075. [PMID: 34506263 DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2021.1971735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Food, water and sanitation insecurities are complex, multi-dimensional phenomena that entail more than availability and access; food, water, and sanitation resources must be safe and culturally appropriate. Researchers and implementers concerned with these insecurities have demonstrated that there are notable interactions between them resulting in significant psychological and biological outcomes. Recent randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in Bangladesh, Kenya (WASH Benefits) and Zimbabwe (SHINE) demonstrated no effect from water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions on linear growth, and mixed evidence on enteropathogen burden and risk of diarrhoea in young children. These data suggest a need for a more comprehensive understanding of WASH security. The risks posed by multiple resource insecurities shift depending on the individual, their movement throughout their day, their economically and socially prescribed roles, and ecological features such as seasonality and precipitation. By more fully integrating food, water and sanitation security in interventions and subsequent impact evaluations, we can achieve WASH security-one that addresses myriad transmission pathways and co-occurring diseases-that ultimately would improve health outcomes throughout the world. In this critical review, we outline the complexity of combined resource insecurities as a step towards transformative WASH.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Angela Harris
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
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Byrd KA, Shieh J, Mork S, Pincus L, O'Meara L, Atkins M, Thilsted SH. Fish and Fish-Based Products for Nutrition and Health in the First 1000 Days: A Systematic Review of the Evidence from Low and Middle-Income Countries. Adv Nutr 2022; 13:2458-2487. [PMID: 36166842 PMCID: PMC9776644 DOI: 10.1093/advances/nmac102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Fish provide essential nutrients for the critical window of growth and development in the first 1000 d of life and are thus an attractive option for inclusion in nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific programming. We conducted a systematic review of the evidence for fish and fish-based products for nutrition and health outcomes during the first 1000 d of life in low- and middle-income countries, searching the peer-reviewed and gray literature from 1999 to 2020. Databases included PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, ProQuest, and the Clinical Trials repository. Our search returned 1135 articles, 39 of which met the inclusion criteria. All studies were dual evaluated for risk of bias. Of the included studies, 18 measured maternal health and nutrition outcomes and 24 measured infant/child outcomes (3 measured both). Our search uncovered 10 impact evaluations, all of which measured consumption of fish or fish-based complementary food products in children aged 6-24 mo. We did not find strong evidence for fish consumption in children improving child growth from the impact evaluations; however, the studies were highly heterogeneous in their design and likely underpowered to detect an effect. Results from observational studies were mixed but provided evidence that adding fish to maternal and child diets is associated with improved nutrition outcomes, such as reducing the risk of anemia and improving vitamin D status. Given the nutrient richness of fish and the fact that production is often more environmentally friendly as compared with other animal source foods, more robust evidence is needed on the role of fish consumption in nutrition interventions to inform policy and programming recommendations in low- and middle-income countries.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Lydia O'Meara
- WorldFish, Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia,Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, Kent, UK
| | - Molly Atkins
- WorldFish, Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia,International Development Department, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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22
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Sedekia Y, Kapiga S, Mcharo O, Makata K, Torondel B, Dreibelbis R, Okello E. Does a school-based intervention to engage parents change opportunity for handwashing with soap at home? Practical experience from the Mikono Safi trial in Northwestern Tanzania. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2022; 16:e0010438. [PMID: 35666720 PMCID: PMC9170081 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2021] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND School-based de-worming is advocated as a strategy for reducing the burden of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections among children. However, re-infection tends to occur rapidly, suggesting that comprehensive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) improvements may be needed to prevent this. We qualitatively assessed the influence of parental engagement activities on parents' motivation to improve WASH infrastructure and hygiene practices at home in the context of a school-based de-worming programme. METHODOLOGY We conducted a longitudinal qualitative study nested within the Mikono Safi trial, designed to assess the effect of a WASH intervention on STH infection prevalence in children. Meetings were organized for parents/guardians at schools where they were given information about STH infection, the role of WASH in STH infection prevention, and actionable steps they could take at home. During the meetings, parents/guardians received information about their own child's STH infection status. Twenty purposively selected households were visited and interviewed 3 times over a period of about 8-months. We employed thematic analysis; findings are reported following the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation and Behaviour (COM-B) framework. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The engagement strategy improved parents'/guardians' knowledge and skills about handwashing with soap and its benefits. Parents/guardians reported that the sessions had motivated them to improve WASH infrastructure at home. Of 20 households included in this study, 17 renovated or built new latrines and 18 installed handwashing facilities. However, only 8 households established and maintained handwashing stations with both soap and water at 8 months. CONCLUSIONS The engagement of parents/guardians in a school-based WASH education intervention as part of the Mikono Safi trial resulted in increased knowledge and motivation about handwashing and sanitation. This led to improvements in sanitation facilities and handwashing opportunities at home. However, long-term success in provision of water and soap was limited, indicating that sustained engagement may be required to encourage households to ensure these materials are consistently available at home.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Saidi Kapiga
- Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit, Mwanza, Tanzania
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine [LSHTM], London, United Kingdom
| | - Onike Mcharo
- Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit, Mwanza, Tanzania
| | | | - Belen Torondel
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine [LSHTM], London, United Kingdom
| | - Robert Dreibelbis
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine [LSHTM], London, United Kingdom
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Smith DW, Islam M, Furst KE, Mustaree S, Crider YS, Akter N, Islam SA, Sultana S, Mahmud ZH, Rahman M, Mitch WA, Davis J. Chlorine taste can increase simulated exposure to both fecal contamination and disinfection byproducts in water supplies. WATER RESEARCH 2021; 207:117806. [PMID: 34768105 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 08/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Expanding drinking water chlorination could substantially reduce the burden of disease in low- and middle-income countries, but the taste of chlorinated water often impedes adoption. We developed a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the effect of people's choice to accept or reject drinking water based on chlorine taste and their subsequent exposure to E. coli and trihalomethanes, a class of disinfection byproduct (DBP). The simulation used empirical data from Dhaka, Bangladesh, a megacity with endemic waterborne disease. We drew on published taste acceptability thresholds from Dhaka residents, measured residual chlorine and thermotolerant E. coli inactivation following the addition of six chlorine doses (0.25-3.0 mg/L as Cl2) to untreated piped water samples from 100 locations, and analyzed trihalomethane formation in 54 samples. A dose of 0.5 mg/L, 75% lower than the 2 mg/L dose typically recommended for household chlorination of low-turbidity waters, minimized overall exposure to E. coli. Doses of 1-2 mg/L maximized overall exposure to trihalomethanes. Accounting for chlorine taste aversion indicates that microbiological exposure increases and DBP exposure decreases above certain doses as a higher proportion of people reject chlorinated water in favor of untreated water. Taken together with findings from other modeling analyses, empirical studies, and field trials, our results suggest that taste acceptability should be a critical consideration in establishing chlorination dosing guidelines. Particularly when chlorination is first implemented in water supplies with low chlorine demand, lower doses than those generally recommended for household water treatment can help avoid taste-related objections while still meaningfully reducing contaminant exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel W Smith
- Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega, Y2E2 Building, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
| | - Mahfuza Islam
- Environmental Interventions Unit, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Kirin E Furst
- Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega, Y2E2 Building, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Shobnom Mustaree
- Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, icddr,b, 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Yoshika S Crider
- Energy & Resources Group and Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California Berkeley, 310 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Nazrin Akter
- Environmental Interventions Unit, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Syed Anjerul Islam
- Environmental Interventions Unit, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Sonia Sultana
- Environmental Interventions Unit, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Zahid H Mahmud
- Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, icddr,b, 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Interventions Unit, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - William A Mitch
- Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega, Y2E2 Building, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Jennifer Davis
- Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega, Y2E2 Building, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega, Y2E2 Building, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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Lueangsakulthai J, Kim BJ, Demers-Mathieu V, Sah BNP, Woo Y, Olyaei A, Aloia M, O'Connor A, Scottoline BP, Dallas DC. Effect of digestion on stability of palivizumab IgG1 in the infant gastrointestinal tract. Pediatr Res 2021; 90:335-340. [PMID: 33214672 DOI: 10.1038/s41390-020-01271-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Revised: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Potentially, orally administered antibodies specific to enteric pathogens could be administered to infants to prevent diarrheal infections, particularly in developing countries where diarrhea is a major problem. However, to prevent infection, such antibodies would need to resist degradation within the gastrointestinal tract. METHODS Palivizumab, a recombinant antibody specific to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), was used in this study as a model for examining the digestion of neutralizing antibodies to enteric pathogens in infants. The survival of this recombinant IgG1 across digestion in 11 infants was assayed via an anti-idiotype ELISA and RSV F protein-specific ELISA. Concentrations were controlled for any dilution or concentration that occurred in the digestive system using mass spectrometry-based quantification of co-administered, orally supplemented, indigestible polyethylene glycol (PEG-28). RESULTS Binding activity of Palivizumab IgG1 decreased (26-99%) across each phase of in vivo digestion as measured by both anti-idiotype and RSV F protein-specific ELISAs. CONCLUSION Antibodies generated for passive protection of the infant gastrointestinal tract from pathogens will need to be more resistant to digestion than the model antibody fed to infants in this study, or provided in higher doses to be most effective. IMPACT Binding activity of palivizumab IgG1 decreased (26-99%) across each phase of in vivo infant digestion as measured by both anti-idiotype and RSV F protein-specific ELISAs. Palivizumab was likely degraded by proteases and changes in pH introduced in the gut. Antibodies generated for passive protection of the infant gastrointestinal tract from pathogens will need to be more resistant to digestion than the model antibody fed to infants in this study, or provided in higher doses to be most effective. The monoclonal antibody IgG1 tested was not stable across the infant gastrointestinal tract. The observation of palivizumab reduction was unlikely due to dilution in the gastrointestinal tract. The results of this work hint that provision of antibody could be effective in preventing enteric pathogen infection in infants. Orally delivered recombinant antibodies will need to either be dosed at high levels to compensate for digestive losses or be engineered to better resist digestion. Provision of enteric pathogen-specific recombinant antibodies to at-risk infants could provide a new and previously unexplored pathway to reducing the infection in infants. The strategy of enteric recombinant antibodies deserves more investigation throughout medicine as a novel means for treatment of enteric disease targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiraporn Lueangsakulthai
- Nutrition Program, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Bum Jin Kim
- Nutrition Program, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Veronique Demers-Mathieu
- Nutrition Program, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Baidya Nath P Sah
- Nutrition Program, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Yeonhee Woo
- Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Amy Olyaei
- Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Molly Aloia
- Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Ann O'Connor
- Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Brian P Scottoline
- Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - David C Dallas
- Nutrition Program, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
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Kwong LH, Sen D, Islam S, Shahriar S, Benjamin-Chung J, Arnold BF, Hubbard A, Parvez SM, Islam M, Unicomb L, Rahman MM, Nelson K, Colford JM, Luby SP, Ercumen A. Effect of sanitation improvements on soil-transmitted helminth eggs in courtyard soil from rural Bangladesh: Evidence from a cluster-randomized controlled trial. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2021; 15:e0008815. [PMID: 34319986 PMCID: PMC8351931 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008815] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Revised: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Improved sanitation has been hypothesized to reduce soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections by reducing the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs/larvae in soil. We evaluated the effect of a randomized sanitation program (providing households with an improved dual-pit latrine, tools for child/animal feces management, and behavioral messaging) on reducing the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs in soil from household courtyards. We collected soil samples from 1405 households enrolled in the sanitation intervention (n = 419) and control (n = 914) groups of a cluster-randomized controlled trial (WASH Benefits) in rural Bangladesh approximately 2 years after the initiation of the interventions. We analyzed samples for Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm eggs by microscopy. We estimated prevalence ratios (PR) and egg count ratio (ECR) to compare the prevalence of STH eggs and arithmetic and geometric mean egg counts for STH eggs per gram of soil in the sanitation and control arms. Among intervention households, latrines achieved high and sustained user uptake by adults while child open defecation remained common and most households did not dispose of child feces hygienically. In courtyard soil from control households, the prevalence of any STH eggs was 75.7% and the prevalence of any larvated STH eggs was 67.3%. A. lumbricoides was detected in 63.0% of control samples and T. trichiura in 55.7% of control samples; hookworm was not detected in any sample. In the control arm, the arithmetic mean egg count for any STH was 3.96 eggs/dry gram, while the geometric mean was 1.58 eggs/dry gram. There was no difference between the intervention and control groups in the prevalence of any STH eggs (PR = 0.98 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.05)) or mean egg counts (ECR = 0.08 (95% CI: -0.10, 0.26) for geometric mean and 0.07 (95% CI: -0.22, 0.37) for arithmetic mean). Adjusted models gave similar results. A compound-level sanitation intervention that provided improved latrines and tools for disposal of child and animal feces did not have an impact on STH eggs in soil. In order to effectively reduce the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs in the environment, sustained, widespread use of sanitation strategies to isolate and hygienically dispose of child and animal feces may need to complement traditional strategies for containment of adult human feces. Trial Registration: NCT01590095.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura H. Kwong
- Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Debashis Sen
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sharmin Islam
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sunny Shahriar
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Alan Hubbard
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Sarker Masud Parvez
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahfuza Islam
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Mahbubur Rahman
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Kara Nelson
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - John M. Colford
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
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26
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Contreras JD, Islam M, Mertens A, Pickering AJ, Kwong LH, Arnold BF, Benjamin-Chung J, Hubbard AE, Alam M, Sen D, Islam S, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Luby SP, Colford JM, Ercumen A. Longitudinal Effects of a Sanitation Intervention on Environmental Fecal Contamination in a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural Bangladesh. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2021; 55:8169-8179. [PMID: 34086447 PMCID: PMC8213058 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c01114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Revised: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Household latrine access generally is not associated with reduced fecal contamination in the environment, but its long-term effectiveness has not been measured. We conducted an environmental assessment nested within the WASH Benefits Bangladesh randomized controlled trial (NCT01590095). We quantified E. coli and fecal coliforms in samples of stored drinking water, child hands, mother hands, soil, and food among a random sample of households from the sanitation and control arms of the trial. Samples were collected during eight quarterly visits approximately 1-3.5 years after intervention initiation. Overall, there were no substantial differences in environmental fecal contamination between households enrolled in the sanitation and control arms. Statistically significant reductions were found in stored water and child hands after pooling across sampling rounds, but the effects were small and not consistent across rounds. In addition, we assessed potential effect modification of intervention effects by follow-up time, season, wealth, community-level latrine density and coverage, population density, and domestic animal ownership. While the intervention had statistically significant effects within some subgroups, there were no consistent patterns of effect modification. Our findings support a growing consensus that on-site latrines are insufficient to prevent fecal contamination in the rural household environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesse D. Contreras
- Department
of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Mahfuza Islam
- Environmental
Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Amy J. Pickering
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Laura H. Kwong
- Woods
Institute for the Environment, Stanford
University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Francis I.
Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, United States
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- Division
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Mahfuja Alam
- Environmental
Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Debashis Sen
- Environmental
Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Sharmin Islam
- Environmental
Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental
Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Environmental
Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Woods
Institute for the Environment, Stanford
University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - John M. Colford
- Division
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department
of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
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Passarelli S, Ambikapathi R, Gunaratna NS, Madzorera I, Canavan CR, Noor RA, Tewahido D, Berhane Y, Sibanda S, Sibanda LM, Madzivhandila T, Munthali BLM, McConnell M, Sudfeld C, Davison K, Fawzi W. The role of chicken management practices in children's exposure to environmental contamination: a mixed-methods analysis. BMC Public Health 2021; 21:1097. [PMID: 34103022 PMCID: PMC8188703 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-11025-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2020] [Accepted: 05/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Household chicken production presents an opportunity to promote child nutrition, but the benefits might be offset by increased environmental contamination. Using household surveys, direct observations, and in-depth interviews with woman caregivers, we sought to describe the relationship between chicken management practices and household exposure to environmental contamination, and assess barriers to adopting improved husbandry practices. METHODS First, we analyzed baseline data from 973 households raising chickens in the two interventions arms from the Agriculture-to-Nutrition (ATONU) study in Ethiopia to assess the relationship between animal management practices and environmental exposures. Second, we conducted six-hour direct observations of children's environmental exposures in 18 households. Among these households, we analyzed in-depth interviews with child caregivers. RESULTS Quantitative analyses showed that households raised approximately 11 chickens, had animal feces visible on the property 67% of the time, and children's hands were visibly dirty 38% of the time. Households with more chickens had lower exposure to animal feces. Having a chicken coop increased the risk of observing animal feces on the property by 30%, but among those with a coop, having an enclosed coop reduced that risk by 83%. Coops that were enclosed, had fencing, and were located further from homes were associated with a reduced risk of observing animal feces and an increased likelihood of children having clean hands. Direct observations showed that chicken coops were often poorly designed or not used. On average, 3 to 5 chickens were inside homes at a time, and livestock and domestic animals were frequently inside of houses and interacting with young children. In-depth interviews revealed that protection of animals, maintenance of household cleanliness and health, type of chicken (local versus improved) and resource constraints influenced management decisions. CONCLUSIONS Improvements in chicken management practices could mitigate the exposure of household members to environmental contamination. Our findings highlight the need for training and resources to promote safe animal husbandry practices and optimal child health in nutrition-sensitive livestock projects. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinical trials number: NCT03152227 ; Retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov on May 12, 2012.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Passarelli
- Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
| | | | | | - Isabel Madzorera
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | - Chelsey R Canavan
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | - Ramadhani Abdallah Noor
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | | | - Yemane Berhane
- Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Simbarashe Sibanda
- Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, Pretoria, South Africa
| | | | | | - Bertha L M Munthali
- Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Margaret McConnell
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | - Christopher Sudfeld
- Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.,Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | | | - Wafaie Fawzi
- Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.,Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.,Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
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Zavala E, King SE, Sawadogo-Lewis T, Roberton T. Leveraging water, sanitation and hygiene for nutrition in low- and middle-income countries: A conceptual framework. MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITION 2021; 17:e13202. [PMID: 33988303 PMCID: PMC8189228 DOI: 10.1111/mcn.13202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Revised: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
In low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs), access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is associated with nutritional status including stunting, which affects 144 million children under 5 globally. Despite the consistent epidemiological association between WASH indicators and nutritional status, the provision of WASH interventions alone has not been found to improve child growth in recent randomized control trials. We conducted a literature review to develop a new conceptual framework that highlights what is known about the WASH to nutrition pathways, the limitations of certain interventions and how future WASH could be leveraged to benefit nutritional status in populations. This new conceptual framework will provide policy makers, program implementors and researchers with a visual tool to bring into perspective multiple levels of WASH and how it may effectively influence nutrition while identifying existing gaps in implementation and research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleonor Zavala
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Shannon E King
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Talata Sawadogo-Lewis
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Timothy Roberton
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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Rahman M, Jahir T, Yeasmin F, Begum F, Mobashara M, Hossain K, Khan R, Hossain R, Nizame FA, Jain A, Leontsini E, Unicomb L, Luby SP, Winch PJ. The Lived Experiences of Community Health Workers Serving in a Large-Scale Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Intervention Trial in Rural Bangladesh. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph18073389. [PMID: 33805884 PMCID: PMC8037636 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18073389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2021] [Revised: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Community health workers (CHWs) are key to implementing community-based health interventions and quality can be enhanced by better understanding their lived experiences. The WASH Benefits, Bangladesh trial engaged 540 female CHWs to promote varying health intervention packages. We report on factors influencing their lived experiences during the trial, to aid future recruitment, training and retention of CHWs. Nine focus groups and 18 in-depth interviews were conducted with CHWs. Focus groups and interviews were transcribed and thematic content analysis performed to summarize the results. All CHWs described experiencing positive working conditions and many benefits both socially and financially; these contributed to their retention and job satisfaction. Their honorarium was commonly applied towards their children's education and invested for income generation. CHWs gained self-confidence as women, to move unaccompanied in the community and speak in public. They earned respect from the community and their family members who helped them manage their family obligations during work and were viewed as a resource for advice on health and social issues. Many participated in family decision-making from which they were previously excluded. Health programs should foster a positive experience among their CHWs to aid the recruitment, retention and development of this important human resource.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahbubur Rahman
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +88-017-1200-1294
| | - Tania Jahir
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Farzana Yeasmin
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Farzana Begum
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Mosammot Mobashara
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Khobair Hossain
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Rizwana Khan
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Rezwana Hossain
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Fosiul Alam Nizame
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Anika Jain
- Department of International Health, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (A.J.); (E.L.); (P.J.W.)
| | - Elli Leontsini
- Department of International Health, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (A.J.); (E.L.); (P.J.W.)
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh; (T.J.); (F.Y.); (F.B.); (M.M.); (K.H.); (R.K.); (R.H.); (F.A.N.); (L.U.)
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA;
| | - Peter J. Winch
- Department of International Health, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (A.J.); (E.L.); (P.J.W.)
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Formative research for the development of baby water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions for young children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (REDUCE program). BMC Public Health 2021; 21:427. [PMID: 33648466 PMCID: PMC7923459 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-10246-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2020] [Accepted: 01/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Research exploring the unique exposure pathways to fecal pathogens for young children and innovative water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions for susceptible pediatric populations is needed to reduce the burden of diarrheal diseases and stunting globally. The Reducing Enteropathy, Diarrhea, Undernutrition, and Contamination in the Environment (REDUCE) program seeks to 1) identify exposure pathways to fecal pathogens that are significant contributors to morbidity for young children in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and 2) develop and evaluate scalable interventions that reduce fecal contamination and exposure from these pathways. The formative research portion of the project sought to identify feasible and acceptable WASH interventions to modify behaviors found to be associated with diarrheal disease and impaired growth in our REDUCE cohort study. METHODS Ninety-one semi-structured interviews, 6 focus group discussions, and a pilot study of 102 households were conducted during 24 months of formative research. Thirty-one interviews and six focus group discussions were conducted with caregivers, community health workers, and village leaders to explore existing WASH practices and to identify barriers and facilitators to WASH behaviors. Findings were organized using the Integrated Behavioral Model for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to facilitate interpretation and identify determinants to Baby WASH behaviors in this setting. Care Group modules and enabling technology were developed based on exploratory findings and then revised during a two-part, iterative pilot study. Sixty interviews were conducted with participants in a pilot study of the REDUCE Baby WASH Care Group modules to learn about their experiences with the intervention. RESULTS Six REDUCE Baby WASH Care Group modules were developed based on formative research findings and covered the following topics: 1) living with animals; 2) child mouthing of fomites and feces; 3) composting animal feces; 4) child feces disposal; 5) handwashing with soap; and 6) water treatment. CONCLUSION This study took a theory-driven and evidence-based approach to formative research and the development of the REDUCE Baby WASH Care Group modules. Intervention design focused on interrupting the exposure routes for infants and young children to fecal pathogens in the environment and promoting low-cost, low-burden Baby WASH behavioral recommendations and enabling technology. These developed REDUCE Baby WASH Care Group modules are currently being rolled out to over 1,000,000 beneficiaries in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Parvez SM, Rahman MJ, Azad R, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Ashraf S, Mondol MH, Jahan F, Winch PJ, Luby SP. Achieving equitable uptake of handwashing and sanitation by addressing both supply and demand-based constraints: findings from a randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh. Int J Equity Health 2021; 20:16. [PMID: 33407549 PMCID: PMC7789645 DOI: 10.1186/s12939-020-01353-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Supply driven programs that are not closely connected to community demand and demand-driven programs that fail to ensure supply both risk worsening inequity. Understanding patterns of uptake of behaviors among the poorest under ideal experimental conditions, such as those of an efficacy trial, can help identify strategies that could be strengthened in routine programmatic conditions for more equitable uptake. WASH Benefits Bangladesh was a randomized controlled efficacy trial that provided free-of cost WASH hardware along with behavior change promotion. The current paper aimed to determine the impact of the removal of supply and demand constraints on the uptake of handwashing and sanitation behaviors across wealth and education levels. Methods The current analysis selected 4 indicators from the WASH Benefits trial— presence of water and soap in household handwashing stations, observed mother’s hand cleanliness, observed visible feces on latrine slab or floor and reported last child defecation in potty or toilet. A baseline assessment was conducted immediately after enrolment and endline assessment was conducted approximately 2 years later. We compared change in uptake of these indicators including wealth quintiles (Q) between intervention and control groups from baseline to endline. Results For hand cleanliness, the poorest mothers improved more [Q1 difference in difference, DID: 16% (7, 25%)] than the wealthiest mothers [Q5 DID: 7% (− 4, 17%)]. The poorest households had largest improvements for observed presence of water and soap in handwashing station [Q1 DID: 82% (75, 90%)] compared to the wealthiest households [Q5 DID: 39% (30, 50%)]. Similarly, poorer household demonstrated greater reductions in visible feces on latrine slab or floor [Q1DID, − 25% (− 35, − 15) Q2: − 34% (− 44, − 23%)] than the wealthiest household [Q5 DID: − 1% (− 11, 8%). For reported last child defecation in potty or toilet, the poorest mothers showed greater improvement [Q1–4 DID: 50–54% (44, 60%)] than the wealthier mothers [Q5 DID: 39% (31, 46%). Conclusion By simultaneously addressing supply and demand-constraints among the poorest, we observed substantial overall improvements in equity. Within scaled-up programs, a separate targeted strategy that relaxes constraints for the poorest can improve the equity of a program. Trial registration WASH Benefits Bangladesh: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT01590095. Date of registration: April 30, 2012 ‘Retrospectively registered’. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-020-01353-7.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarker Masud Parvez
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
| | - Musarrat Jabeen Rahman
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Rashidul Azad
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sania Ashraf
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | | | - Farjana Jahan
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Peter J Winch
- Social and Behavioral Interventions Program, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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Lin A, Ali S, Arnold BF, Rahman MZ, Alauddin M, Grembi J, Mertens AN, Famida SL, Akther S, Hossen MS, Mutsuddi P, Shoab AK, Hussain Z, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Ashraf S, Naser AM, Parvez SM, Ercumen A, Benjamin-Chung J, Haque R, Ahmed T, Hossain MI, Choudhury N, Jannat K, Alauddin ST, Minchala SG, Cekovic R, Hubbard AE, Stewart CP, Dewey KG, Colford JM, Luby SP. Effects of Water, Sanitation, Handwashing, and Nutritional Interventions on Environmental Enteric Dysfunction in Young Children: A Cluster-randomized, Controlled Trial in Rural Bangladesh. Clin Infect Dis 2021; 70:738-747. [PMID: 30963177 DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciz291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2018] [Accepted: 04/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND We hypothesized that drinking water, sanitation, handwashing (WSH), and nutritional interventions would improve environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a potential contributor to stunting. METHODS Within a subsample of a cluster-randomized, controlled trial in rural Bangladesh, we enrolled pregnant women in 4 arms: control, WSH, child nutrition counseling plus lipid-based nutrient supplements (N), and nutrition plus WSH (N+WSH). Among the birth cohort, we measured biomarkers of gut inflammation (myeloperoxidase, neopterin), permeability (alpha-1-antitrypsin, lactulose, mannitol), and repair (regenerating gene 1β) at median ages 3, 14, and 28 months. Analysis was intention-to-treat. RESULTS We assessed 1512 children. At age 3 months, compared to controls, neopterin was reduced by nutrition (-0.21 log nmol/L; 95% confidence interval [CI], -.37, -.05) and N+WSH (-0.20 log nmol/L; 95% CI, -.34, -.06) interventions; similar reductions were observed at 14 months. At 3 months, all interventions reduced lactulose and mannitol (-0.60 to -0.69 log mmol/L). At 28 months, myeloperoxidase was elevated in the WSH and nutrition arms (0.23-0.27 log ng/mL) and lactulose was higher in the WSH arm (0.30 log mmol/L; 95% CI, .07, .53). CONCLUSIONS Reductions in permeability and inflammation at ages 3 and 14 months suggest that the interventions promoted healthy intestinal maturation; however, by 28 months, the WSH and nutrition arms showed elevated EED biomarkers. These results underscore the importance of developing a better understanding of EED pathophysiology and targeting interventions early in childhood, when they are likely to have the largest benefit to intestinal health. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION NCT01590095.
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Affiliation(s)
- Audrie Lin
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Shahjahan Ali
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Benjamin F Arnold
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Md Ziaur Rahman
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | | | - Jessica Grembi
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, California
| | - Andrew N Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Syeda L Famida
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Salma Akther
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md Saheen Hossen
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Palash Mutsuddi
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Abul K Shoab
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Zahir Hussain
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sania Ashraf
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Abu Mohd Naser
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sarker M Parvez
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Rashidul Haque
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Tahmeed Ahmed
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md Iqbal Hossain
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Nuzhat Choudhury
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Kaniz Jannat
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sarah T Alauddin
- Department of Chemistry, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York
| | | | - Rabije Cekovic
- Department of Chemistry, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York
| | - Alan E Hubbard
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | | | | | - John M Colford
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, California
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Diarrhoea accounts for 1.8 million deaths in children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). One of the identified strategies to prevent diarrhoea is hand washing. OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of hand-washing promotion interventions on diarrhoeal episodes in children and adults. SEARCH METHODS We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, nine other databases, the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP), and metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) on 8 January 2020, together with reference checking, citation searching and contact with study authors to identify additional studies. SELECTION CRITERIA Individually-randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster-RCTs that compared the effects of hand-washing interventions on diarrhoea episodes in children and adults with no intervention. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Three review authors independently assessed trial eligibility, extracted data, and assessed risks of bias. We stratified the analyses for child day-care centres or schools, community, and hospital-based settings. Where appropriate, we pooled incidence rate ratios (IRRs) using the generic inverse variance method and a random-effects model with a 95% confidence interval (CI). We used the GRADE approach to assess the certainty of the evidence. MAIN RESULTS We included 29 RCTs: 13 trials from child day-care centres or schools in mainly high-income countries (54,471 participants), 15 community-based trials in LMICs (29,347 participants), and one hospital-based trial among people with AIDS in a high-income country (148 participants). All the trials and follow-up assessments were of short-term duration. Hand-washing promotion (education activities, sometimes with provision of soap) at child day-care facilities or schools prevent around one-third of diarrhoea episodes in high-income countries (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.70, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.85; 9 trials, 4664 participants, high-certainty evidence) and may prevent a similar proportion in LMICs, but only two trials from urban Egypt and Kenya have evaluated this (IRR 0.66, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.99; 2 trials, 45,380 participants; low-certainty evidence). Only four trials reported measures of behaviour change, and the methods of data collection were susceptible to bias. In one trial from the USA hand-washing behaviour was reported to improve; and in the trial from Kenya that provided free soap, hand washing did not increase, but soap use did (data not pooled; 3 trials, 1845 participants; low-certainty evidence). Hand-washing promotion among communities in LMICs probably prevents around one-quarter of diarrhoea episodes (IRR 0.71, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.81; 9 trials, 15,950 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). However, six of these nine trials were from Asian settings, with only one trial from South America and two trials from sub-Saharan Africa. In seven trials, soap was provided free alongside hand-washing education, and the overall average effect size was larger than in the two trials which did not provide soap (soap provided: RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.75; 7 trials, 12,646 participants; education only: RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.67 to 1.05; 2 trials, 3304 participants). There was increased hand washing at major prompts (before eating or cooking, after visiting the toilet, or cleaning the baby's bottom) and increased compliance with hand-hygiene procedure (behavioural outcome) in the intervention groups compared with the control in community trials (data not pooled: 4 trials, 3591 participants; high-certainty evidence). Hand-washing promotion for the one trial conducted in a hospital among a high-risk population showed significant reduction in mean episodes of diarrhoea (1.68 fewer) in the intervention group (mean difference -1.68, 95% CI -1.93 to -1.43; 1 trial, 148 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Hand-washing frequency increased to seven times a day in the intervention group versus three times a day in the control arm in this hospital trial (1 trial, 148 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). We found no trials evaluating the effects of hand-washing promotions on diarrhoea-related deaths or cost effectiveness. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Hand-washing promotion probably reduces diarrhoea episodes in both child day-care centres in high-income countries and among communities living in LMICs by about 30%. The included trials do not provide evidence about the long-term impact of the interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Regina I Ejemot-Nwadiaro
- Department of Public Health, College of Medical Sciences, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria
| | - John E Ehiri
- Division of Health Promotion Sciences, University of Arizona, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Dachi Arikpo
- Cochrane Nigeria, Institute of Tropical Diseases Research and Prevention, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria
| | - Martin M Meremikwu
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria
| | - Julia A Critchley
- Population Health Sciences Institute, St George's, University of London, London, UK
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Hedman HD, Varga C, Duquette J, Novakofski J, Mateus-Pinilla NE. Food Safety Considerations Related to the Consumption and Handling of Game Meat in North America. Vet Sci 2020; 7:vetsci7040188. [PMID: 33255599 PMCID: PMC7712377 DOI: 10.3390/vetsci7040188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 11/22/2020] [Accepted: 11/23/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Emerging foodborne pathogens present a threat to public health. It is now recognized that several foodborne pathogens originate from wildlife as demonstrated by recent global disease outbreaks. Zoonotic spillover events are closely related to the ubiquity of parasitic, bacterial, and viral pathogens present within human and animal populations and their surrounding environment. Foodborne diseases have economic and international trade impacts, incentivizing effective wildlife disease management. In North America, there are no food safety standards for handling and consumption of free-ranging game meat. Game meat consumption continues to rise in North America; however, this growing practice could place recreational hunters and game meat consumers at increased risk of foodborne diseases. Recreational hunters should follow effective game meat food hygiene practices from harvest to storage and consumption. Here, we provide a synthesis review that evaluates the ecological and epidemiological drivers of foodborne disease risk in North American hunter populations that are associated with the harvest and consumption of terrestrial mammal game meat. We anticipate this work could serve as a foundation of preventive measures that mitigate foodborne disease transmission between free-ranging mammalian and human populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hayden D. Hedman
- Illinois Natural History Survey-Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61801, USA; (H.D.H.); (J.N.)
| | - Csaba Varga
- Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA;
| | - Jared Duquette
- Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Resources; Champaign, IL 62702, USA;
| | - Jan Novakofski
- Illinois Natural History Survey-Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61801, USA; (H.D.H.); (J.N.)
- Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla
- Illinois Natural History Survey-Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61801, USA; (H.D.H.); (J.N.)
- Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA;
- Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- Correspondence:
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35
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Goddard FB, Ban R, Barr DB, Brown J, Cannon J, Colford JM, Eisenberg JNS, Ercumen A, Petach H, Freeman MC, Levy K, Luby SP, Moe C, Pickering AJ, Sarnat JA, Stewart J, Thomas E, Taniuchi M, Clasen T. Measuring Environmental Exposure to Enteric Pathogens in Low-Income Settings: Review and Recommendations of an Interdisciplinary Working Group. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020; 54:11673-11691. [PMID: 32813503 PMCID: PMC7547864 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2020] [Revised: 08/18/2020] [Accepted: 08/19/2020] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Infections with enteric pathogens impose a heavy disease burden, especially among young children in low-income countries. Recent findings from randomized controlled trials of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions have raised questions about current methods for assessing environmental exposure to enteric pathogens. Approaches for estimating sources and doses of exposure suffer from a number of shortcomings, including reliance on imperfect indicators of fecal contamination instead of actual pathogens and estimating exposure indirectly from imprecise measurements of pathogens in the environment and human interaction therewith. These shortcomings limit the potential for effective surveillance of exposures, identification of important sources and modes of transmission, and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions. In this review, we summarize current and emerging approaches used to characterize enteric pathogen hazards in different environmental media as well as human interaction with those media (external measures of exposure), and review methods that measure human infection with enteric pathogens as a proxy for past exposure (internal measures of exposure). We draw from lessons learned in other areas of environmental health to highlight how external and internal measures of exposure can be used to more comprehensively assess exposure. We conclude by recommending strategies for advancing enteric pathogen exposure assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frederick
G. B. Goddard
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Radu Ban
- Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington 98109, United States
| | - Dana Boyd Barr
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Joe Brown
- School of
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Jennifer Cannon
- Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia 30308, United States
| | - John M. Colford
- Division
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California−Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Joseph N. S. Eisenberg
- Department
of Epidemiology, University of Michigan
School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department
of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Helen Petach
- U.S. Agency
for International Development, Washington, DC 20004, United States
| | - Matthew C. Freeman
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Karen Levy
- Department
of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105, United States
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Division
of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, California 94305, United States
| | - Christine Moe
- Center
for
Global Safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Rollins School of Public
Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Amy J. Pickering
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States
| | - Jeremy A. Sarnat
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Jill Stewart
- Department
of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global
Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Evan Thomas
- Mortenson
Center in Global Engineering, University
of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80303, United States
| | - Mami Taniuchi
- Division
of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, United States
| | - Thomas Clasen
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
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Machira K, Chirwa T. Dietary consumption and its effect on nutrition outcome among under-five children in rural Malawi. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0237139. [PMID: 32925943 PMCID: PMC7489506 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2019] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite remarkable progress in reducing under five mortalities in Malawi, a relative proportion of under nutrition among children still exist. OBJECTIVES The study examines dietary consumption factors and their effect on under nutrition outcomes among children under five years' children in rural Malawi. METHODS Using the 2015-16 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, in which 4,150 children were reported of under nutrition statuses, the study used nested logistic regression models to estimate factors influencing the prevalence of under nutrition among children. RESULTS Based on the results, exclusive breast feeding among children under five years, after controlling for parental socioeconomic factors, was found to reduce the levels of wasting (ODDS RATIO [OR] = 0.763; p < 0.05), underweight (OR = 0.548; p < 0.001) and stunting (OR = 0.709; p < 0.005). Furthermore, it was found that despite the perceived adequacy among women in accessing fruits and vegetables, carbohydrates and micro-nutrient supplements, their children under five years, still experiences public health challenges and suffers from wasting, underweight and stunting. CONCLUSION There is need to implement extensive pro-rural under five nutritional and health educational advocacy using community-based approaches, targeting parents, emphasizing the significance of exclusive breast feeding and consistencies in giving dietary foods, if and only if the persistent public health challenges due to under nutrition among children under five years, is to be sustainably dealt with, in Malawi.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kennedy Machira
- Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Faculty of Development Studies, Lilongwe, Malawi
- Witwatersrand University, School of Public Health, Education Campus, Park Town, Johannesburg
| | - Tobias Chirwa
- Witwatersrand University, School of Public Health, Education Campus, Park Town, Johannesburg
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Spears D. Exposure to open defecation can account for the Indian enigma of child height. JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS 2020; 146:102277. [PMID: 32904726 PMCID: PMC7457703 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2018] [Revised: 07/07/2018] [Accepted: 08/06/2018] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Physical height is an important measure of human capital. However, differences in average height across developing countries are poorly explained by economic differences. Children in India are shorter than poorer children in Africa, a widely studied puzzle called "the Asian enigma." This paper proposes and quantitatively investigates the hypothesis that differences in sanitation - and especially in the population density of open defecation - can statistically account for an important component of the Asian enigma, India's gap relative to sub-Saharan Africa. The paper's main result computes a demographic projection of the increase in the average height of Indian children, if they were counterfactually exposed to sub-Saharan African sanitation, using a non-parametric reweighting method. India's projected increase in mean height is at least as large as the gap. The analysis also critically reviews evidence from recent estimates in the literature. Two possible mechanisms are effects on children and on their mothers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean Spears
- Department of Economics and Population Research Centre, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, India
- IZA, Germany
- r.i.c.e., USA
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38
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Grembi JA, Lin A, Karim MA, Islam MO, Miah R, Arnold BF, McQuade ETR, Ali S, Rahman MZ, Hussain Z, Shoab AK, Famida SL, Hossen MS, Mutsuddi P, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Haque R, Taniuchi M, Liu J, Platts-Mills JA, Holmes SP, Stewart CP, Benjamin-Chung J, Colford JM, Houpt ER, Luby SP. Effect of water, sanitation, handwashing and nutrition interventions on enteropathogens in children 14 months old: a cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh. J Infect Dis 2020; 227:jiaa549. [PMID: 32861214 PMCID: PMC9891429 DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND We evaluated the impact of low-cost water, sanitation, handwashing (WSH) and child nutrition interventions on enteropathogen carriage in the WASH Benefits cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh. METHODS We analyzed 1411 routine fecal samples from children 14±2 months old in the WSH (n = 369), nutrition counseling plus lipid-based nutrient supplement (n = 353), nutrition plus WSH (n = 360), and control (n = 329) arms for 34 enteropathogens using quantitative PCR. Outcomes included the number of co-occurring pathogens; cumulative quantity of four stunting-associated pathogens; and prevalence and quantity of individual pathogens. Masked analysis was by intention-to-treat. RESULTS 326 (99.1%) control children had one or more enteropathogens detected (mean 3.8±1.8). Children receiving WSH interventions had lower prevalence and quantity of individual viruses than controls (prevalence difference for norovirus: -11% [95% confidence interval [CI], -5 to -17%]; sapovirus: -9% [95%CI, -3 to -15%]; and adenovirus 40/41: -9% [95%CI, -2 to - 15%]). There was no difference in bacteria, parasites, or cumulative quantity of stunting-associated pathogens between controls and any intervention arm. CONCLUSIONS WSH interventions were associated with fewer enteric viruses in children aged 14 months. Different strategies are needed to reduce enteric bacteria and parasites at this critical young age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica A Grembi
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Audrie Lin
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Md Abdul Karim
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md Ohedul Islam
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Rana Miah
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Benjamin F Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Elizabeth T Rogawski McQuade
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Shahjahan Ali
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md Ziaur Rahman
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Zahir Hussain
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Abul K Shoab
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Syeda L Famida
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Md Saheen Hossen
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Palash Mutsuddi
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Rashidul Haque
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mami Taniuchi
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Jie Liu
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - James A Platts-Mills
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Susan P Holmes
- Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Christine P Stewart
- Institute for Global Nutrition, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - John M Colford
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Eric R Houpt
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
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39
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Islam M, Rahman M, Unicomb L, Kafi MAH, Rahman M, Alam M, Sen D, Islam S, Pickering AJ, Hubbard AE, Luby SP, Arnold BF, Colford JM, Ercumen A. Child defecation and feces management practices in rural Bangladesh: Associations with fecal contamination, observed hand cleanliness and child diarrhea. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0236163. [PMID: 32687513 PMCID: PMC7371197 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Child open defecation is common in low-income countries and can lead to fecal exposure in the domestic environment. We assessed associations between child feces management practices vs. measures of contamination and child diarrhea among households with children <5 years in rural Bangladesh. We visited 360 households quarterly and recorded caregiver-reported diarrhea prevalence, and defecation and feces disposal practices for children <5 years. We examined caregiver and child hands for visible dirt and enumerated E. coli in child and caregiver hand rinse and stored drinking water samples. Safe child defecation (in latrine/potty) and safe feces disposal (in latrine) was reported by 21% and 23% of households, respectively. Controlling for potential confounders, households reporting unsafe child defecation had higher E. coli prevalence on child hands (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.12, 1.04-1.20) and in stored water (PR = 1.12,1.03-1.21). Similarly, households reporting unsafe feces disposal had higher E. coli prevalence on child hands (PR = 1.11, 1.02-1.21) and in stored water (PR = 1.10, 1.03-1.18). Effects on E. coli levels were similar. Children in households with unsafe defecation and feces disposal had higher diarrhea prevalence but the associations were not statistically significant. Our findings suggest that unsafe child feces management may present a source of fecal exposure for young children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahfuza Islam
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | | | - Mostafizur Rahman
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahfuja Alam
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Debashis Sen
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Sharmin Islam
- Environmental Intervention Unit, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Amy J. Pickering
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, United States of America
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States of America
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | - John M. Colford
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States of America
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States of America
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40
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Grembi JA, Mayer-Blackwell K, Luby SP, Spormann AM. High-Throughput Multiparallel Enteropathogen Detection via Nano-Liter qPCR. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2020; 10:351. [PMID: 32766166 PMCID: PMC7381150 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantitative molecular diagnostic methods can effectively detect pathogen-specific nucleic acid sequences, but costs associated with multi-pathogen panels hinder their widespread use in research trials. Nano-liter qPCR (nL-qPCR) is a miniaturized tool for quantification of multiple targets in large numbers of samples based on assay parallelization on a single chip, with potentially significant cost-savings due to rapid throughput and reduced reagent volumes. We evaluated a suite of novel and published assays to detect 17 enteric pathogens using a commercially available nL-qPCR technology. Amplification efficiencies ranged from 88 to 98% (mean 91%) and were reproducible across four operators at two separate facilities. When applied to fecal material, assays were sensitive and selective (99.8% of DNA amplified were genes from the target organism). Due to nanofluidic volumes, detection limits were 1-2 orders of magnitude less sensitive for nL-qPCR than an enteric TaqMan Array Card (TAC). However, higher detection limits do not hinder detection of diarrhea-causing pathogen concentrations. Compared to TAC, nL-qPCR displayed 99% (95% CI 0.98, 0.99) negative percent agreement and 62% (95% CI 0.59, 0.65) overall positive percent agreement for presence of pathogens across diarrheal and non-diarrheal fecal samples. Positive percent agreement was 89% among samples with concentrations above the nL-qPCR detection limits. nL-qPCR assays showed an underestimation bias of 0.34 log10 copies/gram of stool [IQR -0.40, -0.28] compared with TAC. With 12 times higher throughput for a sixth of the per-sample cost of the enteric TAC, the nL-qPCR chip is a viable alternative for enteropathogen quantification for studies where other technologies are cost-prohibitive.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica A Grembi
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Alfred M Spormann
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
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41
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Bekele T, Rawstorne P, Rahman B. Effect of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions alone and combined with nutrition on child growth in low and middle income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open 2020; 10:e034812. [PMID: 32660947 PMCID: PMC7359184 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2019] [Revised: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study aimed to provide clarification on the benefits of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) alone separately and combined with nutrition in improving child growth outcomes. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS We conducted a systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Science Direct were searched in May 2018 and last updated in April 2019. We included studies that reported WASH interventions alone separately or combined with nutrition. Fixed and random-effects models were used to estimate pooled effect in mean difference (MD). Heterogeneity and publication bias statistics were performed. RESULTS A total of 18 studies were included: 13 cluster randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and 5 non-randomised controlled trials (non-RCTs). Non-RCTs showed effect of WASH interventions alone on height-for-age z-score (HAZ) (MD=0.14; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.21) but RCTs did not. WASH alone of non-RCTs and RCTs that were delivered over 18-60 months indicated an effect on HAZ (MD=0.04; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.08). RCTs showed an effect for children <2 years (MD=0.07; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.13). Non-RCTs of WASH alone and those that included at least two components, improved HAZ (MD=0.15; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.23) but RCTs did not. WASH alone of non-RCTs and RCTs separately or together showed no effect on weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) and weight-for-height z-score (WHZ). Combined WASH with nutrition showed an effect on HAZ (MD=0.13; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.17) and on WAZ (MD=0.09; 95% CI 0.05 to 0.13) and was borderline on WHZ. CONCLUSIONS WASH interventions alone improved HAZ when delivered over 18-60 months and for children <2 years. Combined WASH with nutrition showed a strong effect on HAZ and WAZ and a borderline effect on WHZ. Integrated WASH with nutrition interventions may be effective inimproving child growth outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tolesa Bekele
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ambo University, Ambo, Oromia, Ethiopia
| | - Patrick Rawstorne
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Bayzidur Rahman
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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42
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Ashraf S, Islam M, Unicomb L, Rahman M, Winch PJ, Arnold BF, Benjamin-Chung J, Ram PK, Colford JM, Luby SP. Effect of Improved Water Quality, Sanitation, Hygiene and Nutrition Interventions on Respiratory Illness in Young Children in Rural Bangladesh: A Multi-Arm Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2020; 102:1124-1130. [PMID: 32100681 PMCID: PMC7204588 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.19-0769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Acute respiratory infections cause mortality in young children. We assessed the effects of water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and nutritional interventions on childhood ARI. Geographic clusters of pregnant women from rural Bangladesh were randomly assigned to receive 1) chlorinated drinking water and safe storage (W); 2) upgraded sanitation (S); 3) handwashing promotion (H); 4) combined water, sanitation, and handwashing (WSH); 5) nutrition intervention including lipid-based nutrient supplements; 6) combined WSH plus nutrition (WSHN); or 7) no intervention (control). Masking of participants was not possible. Acute respiratory illness was defined as caregiver-reported persistent cough, panting, wheezing, or difficulty breathing in the past 7 days among index children, those born to enrolled women. We assessed outcomes at 12 and 24 months of intervention using intention to treat. Compared with children in the control group (ARI prevalence, P: 8.9%), caregivers of index children reported significantly lower ARI in the water (P: 6.3%, prevalence ratio (PR): 0.71; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.96), sanitation (P: 6.4%, PR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.96), handwashing (P: 6.4%, PR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.93), and the combined WSH+N arms (P: 5.9%, PR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.90). Those in the nutrition (P: 7.4%, PR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.63, 1.10) or the WSH arm (P: 8.9%, PR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.76, 1.28) reported similar ARI prevalence compared with control children. Single targeted water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions reduced reported respiratory illness in young children. There was no apparent respiratory health benefit from combining WASH interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sania Ashraf
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.,Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Mahfuza Islam
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Peter J Winch
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Benjamin F Arnold
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California
| | - Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California
| | - Pavani K Ram
- School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
| | - John M Colford
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California
| | - Stephen P Luby
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.,Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California
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43
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Benjamin-Chung J, Colford, Jr. JM, Mertens A, Hubbard AE, Arnold BF. Internal replication of computational workflows in scientific research. Gates Open Res 2020; 4:17. [PMID: 32803129 PMCID: PMC7403855 DOI: 10.12688/gatesopenres.13108.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/12/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Failures to reproduce research findings across scientific disciplines from psychology to physics have garnered increasing attention in recent years. External replication of published findings by outside investigators has emerged as a method to detect errors and bias in the published literature. However, some studies influence policy and practice before external replication efforts can confirm or challenge the original contributions. Uncovering and resolving errors before publication would increase the efficiency of the scientific process by increasing the accuracy of published evidence. Here we summarize the rationale and best practices for internal replication, a process in which multiple independent data analysts replicate an analysis and correct errors prior to publication. We explain how internal replication should reduce errors and bias that arise during data analyses and argue that it will be most effective when coupled with pre-specified hypotheses and analysis plans and performed with data analysts masked to experimental group assignments. By improving the reproducibility of published evidence, internal replication should contribute to more rapid scientific advances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - John M. Colford, Jr.
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94122, USA
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44
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Benjamin-Chung J, Pilotte N, Ercumen A, Grant JR, Maasch JRMA, Gonzalez AM, Ester AC, Arnold BF, Rahman M, Haque R, Hubbard AE, Luby SP, Williams SA, Colford JM. Comparison of multi-parallel qPCR and double-slide Kato-Katz for detection of soil-transmitted helminth infection among children in rural Bangladesh. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008087. [PMID: 32330127 PMCID: PMC7202662 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Revised: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
There is growing interest in local elimination of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection in endemic settings. In such settings, highly sensitive diagnostics are needed to detect STH infection. We compared double-slide Kato-Katz, the most commonly used copromicroscopic detection method, to multi-parallel quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in 2,799 stool samples from children aged 2–12 years in a setting in rural Bangladesh with predominantly low STH infection intensity. We estimated the sensitivity and specificity of each diagnostic using Bayesian latent class analysis. Compared to double-slide Kato-Katz, STH prevalence using qPCR was almost 3-fold higher for hookworm species and nearly 2-fold higher for Trichuris trichiura. Ascaris lumbricoides prevalence was lower using qPCR, and 26% of samples classified as A. lumbricoides positive by Kato-Katz were negative by qPCR. Amplicon sequencing of the 18S rDNA from 10 samples confirmed that A. lumbricoides was absent in samples classified as positive by Kato-Katz and negative by qPCR. The sensitivity of Kato-Katz was 49% for A. lumbricoides, 32% for hookworm, and 52% for T. trichiura; the sensitivity of qPCR was 79% for A. lumbricoides, 93% for hookworm, and 90% for T. trichiura. Specificity was ≥ 97% for both tests for all STH except for Kato-Katz for A. lumbricoides (specificity = 68%). There were moderate negative, monotonic correlations between qPCR cycle quantification values and eggs per gram quantified by Kato-Katz. While it is widely assumed that double-slide Kato-Katz has few false positives, our results indicate otherwise and highlight inherent limitations of the Kato-Katz technique. qPCR had higher sensitivity than Kato-Katz in this low intensity infection setting. Soil-transmitted helminth infections (STH) (e.g., Ascaris, hookworm, Trichuris) contribute to a large burden of disease among children in low- and middle-income countries. There is increasing interest in implementing large-scale deworming programs to eliminate STH in certain settings. Efforts to monitor whether local elimination has occurred require sensitive diagnostic tests that will not miss positive cases. Kato-Katz, a microscopy-based diagnostic test, has commonly been used to identify STH eggs in stool, but in settings where infection intensity is low, this method frequently misses positive samples because it requires visual identification of small numbers of eggs, and hookworm eggs may degrade prior to visualization. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is a molecular diagnostic method for detecting STH. It may detect more low intensity infections than Kato-Katz because it identifies STH DNA in stool; DNA can be detected in very small quantities and is less likely to degrade than STH ova. Thus, qPCR is likely to be more accurate than Kato-Katz. This study compared the performance of double-slide Kato-Katz and qPCR using 2,799 stool samples from children aged 2–12 years in a setting in rural Bangladesh with predominantly low STH infection intensity. qPCR was more sensitive than Kato-Katz for hookworm and Trichuris infections. 26% of samples were classified as Ascaris positive by Kato-Katz and negative by qPCR. DNA sequencing of 10 samples confirmed that Ascaris was absent in samples classified as positive by Kato-Katz and negative by qPCR. We conclude that Kato-Katz likely produced false positive results for Ascaris and that qPCR had a higher sensitivity than double-slide Kato-Katz in this low infection intensity setting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Nils Pilotte
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Jessica R. Grant
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | | | - Andrew M. Gonzalez
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Ashanta C. Ester
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Rashidul Haque
- Infectious Disease Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Steven A. Williams
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - John M. Colford
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
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45
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Fuhrmeister E, Ercumen A, Pickering AJ, Jeanis KM, Crider Y, Ahmed M, Brown S, Alam M, Sen D, Islam S, Kabir MH, Islam M, Rahman M, Kwong LH, Arnold BF, Luby SP, Colford JM, Nelson KL. Effect of Sanitation Improvements on Pathogens and Microbial Source Tracking Markers in the Rural Bangladeshi Household Environment. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020; 54:4316-4326. [PMID: 32167305 PMCID: PMC7144219 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b04835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2019] [Revised: 03/11/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Diarrheal illnesses from enteric pathogens are a leading cause of death in children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Sanitation is one way to reduce the spread of enteric pathogens in the environment; however, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of sanitation in rural LMICs in reducing pathogens in the environment. In this study, we measured the impact of a sanitation intervention (dual-pit latrines, sani-scoops, child potties delivered as part of a randomized control trial, WASH Benefits) in rural Bangladeshi household compounds by assessing prevalence ratios, differences, and changes in the concentration of pathogen genes and host-specific fecal markers. We found no difference in the prevalence of pathogenic Escherichia coli, norovirus, or Giardia genes in the domestic environment in the sanitation and control arms. The prevalence of the human fecal marker was lower on child hands and the concentration of animal fecal marker was lower on mother hands in the sanitation arm in adjusted models, but these associations were not significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. In the subset of households with ≥10 individuals per compound, the prevalence of enterotoxigenic E. coli genes on child hands was lower in the sanitation arm. Incomplete removal of child and animal feces or the compound (versus community-wide) scale of intervention could explain the limited impacts of improved sanitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica
R. Fuhrmeister
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Ayse Ercumen
- School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department
of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Amy J. Pickering
- Civil
and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02153, United States
| | - Kaitlyn M. Jeanis
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Yoshika Crider
- Energy
and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Mahaa Ahmed
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Sara Brown
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Mahfuja Alam
- Infectious
Disease Division, International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Debashis Sen
- Infectious
Disease Division, International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Sharmin Islam
- Infectious
Disease Division, International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Mir Himayet Kabir
- Infectious
Disease Division, International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Mahfuza Islam
- Infectious
Disease Division, International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Infectious
Disease Division, International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Laura H. Kwong
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Stephen P. Luby
- Woods
Institute for the Environment, Stanford
University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - John M. Colford
- School
of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Kara L. Nelson
- Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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46
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Swarthout J, Ram PK, Arnold CD, Dentz HN, Arnold BF, Kalungu S, Lin A, Njenga SM, Stewart CP, Colford JM, Null C, Pickering AJ. Effects of Individual and Combined Water, Sanitation, Handwashing, and Nutritional Interventions on Child Respiratory Infections in Rural Kenya: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2020; 102:1286-1295. [PMID: 32228789 PMCID: PMC7253138 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.19-0779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Poor nutrition and hand hygiene are risk factors for acute respiratory infections (ARIs). Safe drinking water and sanitation can reduce exposure to pathogens and encourage healthy immune responses, reducing the risk of ARIs. Within a trial assessing impacts of water, sanitation, and handwashing (WASH), and nutritional interventions, we evaluated effects on ARIs. The WASH Benefits cluster-randomized trial enrolled pregnant women from Kenyan villages and evaluated health outcomes in children born to enrolled mothers 1 and 2 years after intervention delivery. Geographically adjacent clusters were block-randomized into a passive control (no promotional visits), a double-sized active control (monthly visits to measure mid–upper arm circumference), and six intervention groups: chlorinated drinking water (W), improved sanitation (S), handwashing with soap (H), combined WSH, improved nutrition (N) through counseling and lipid-based nutrient supplementation (LNS), and combined WSHN. The main outcome was the prevalence of ARI symptoms (cough, panting, wheezing, or difficulty breathing) in children younger than 3 years. Masking participants was not possible. Analyses were intention-to-treat. Between November 2012 and May 2014, 702 clusters were enrolled, including 6,960 (year 1) and 7,088 (year 2) children with ARI data. The cluster-level intra-cluster correlation coefficient for ARIs was 0.026 across both years. Water, sanitation, and handwashing interventions with behavior change messaging did not reduce ARIs. Nutrition counseling and LNS modestly reduced ARI symptoms compared with controls in year 1 [prevalence ratio (PR): 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.77–0.99], but no effect in the combined WSHN group weakens this finding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenna Swarthout
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
| | - Pavani K Ram
- Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
| | - Charles D Arnold
- Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Holly N Dentz
- Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Benjamin F Arnold
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, California
| | | | - Audrie Lin
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
| | | | | | - John M Colford
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
| | - Clair Null
- Center for International Policy Research and Evaluation, Mathematica Policy Research, Washington, District of Columbia
| | - Amy J Pickering
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
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Rogawski McQuade ET, Platts-Mills JA, Gratz J, Zhang J, Moulton LH, Mutasa K, Majo FD, Tavengwa N, Ntozini R, Prendergast AJ, Humphrey JH, Liu J, Houpt ER. Impact of Water Quality, Sanitation, Handwashing, and Nutritional Interventions on Enteric Infections in Rural Zimbabwe: The Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) Trial. J Infect Dis 2020; 221:1379-1386. [PMID: 31004129 PMCID: PMC7325799 DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiz179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2018] [Accepted: 04/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND We assessed the impact of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) interventions on enteric infections in the Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) trial in rural Zimbabwe. METHODS We tested stool samples collected at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months of age and during diarrhea using quantitative molecular diagnostics for 29 pathogens. We estimated the effects of the WASH, IYCF, and combined WASH + IYCF interventions on individual enteropathogen prevalence and quantity, total numbers of pathogens detected, and incidence of pathogen-attributable diarrhea. RESULTS WASH interventions decreased the number of parasites detected (difference in number compared to non-WASH arms, -0.07 [95% confidence interval, -.14 to -.02]), but had no statistically significant effects on bacteria, viruses, or the prevalence and quantity of individual enteropathogens after accounting for multiple comparisons. IYCF interventions had no significant effects on individual or total enteropathogens. Neither intervention had significant effects on pathogen-attributable diarrhea. CONCLUSIONS The WASH interventions implemented in SHINE (improved pit latrine, hand-washing stations, liquid soap, point-of-use water chlorination, and clean play space) did not prevent enteric infections. Transformative WASH interventions are needed that are more efficacious in interrupting fecal-oral microbial transmission in children living in highly contaminated environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth T Rogawski McQuade
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
| | - James A Platts-Mills
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
| | - Jean Gratz
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
| | - Jixian Zhang
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
| | - Lawrence H Moulton
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Kuda Mutasa
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
| | - Florence D Majo
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
| | - Naume Tavengwa
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
| | - Robert Ntozini
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
| | - Andrew J Prendergast
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Jean H Humphrey
- Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Jie Liu
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
| | - Eric R Houpt
- Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
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48
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Jannat K, Luby SP, Unicomb L, Rahman M, Winch PJ, Hossain MI, Stewart CP. Snack food consumption among Bangladeshi children, supplementary data from a large RCT. MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITION 2020; 16:e12994. [PMID: 32196968 PMCID: PMC7507356 DOI: 10.1111/mcn.12994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2019] [Revised: 02/08/2020] [Accepted: 03/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Childhood obesity has been associated with consumption of energy-dense foods such as caloric beverages and fast foods. Many low- and middle-income countries like Bangladesh are now experiencing a rising problem of noncommunicable diseases along with the long-standing problem of stunting and undernutrition. WASH Benefits Bangladesh was a large community-based cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in rural Bangladesh. Study clusters were randomized into seven arms: single nutrition (N); water (W); sanitation (S); hygiene (H); combined water, sanitation, and hygiene (WSH); WSH and nutrition (N + WSH); and a double sized control (C). Nutrition intervention messages included four promotional components: maternal nutrition, breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and lipid-based nutrient supplements. The World Health Organization infant food frequency questionnaire (24-hr recall and 7-day recall) was administered at Year 1 and Year 2 of intervention. The likelihood of any snack food consumption was significantly lower (odds ratio 0.37: 95% confidence interval [0.28, 0.49]) in the nutrition intervention arms compared to the control arm in Year 2 follow-up. In addition, in the water intervention arm, fewer children (about 50% less) consumed soft drinks, but not the other sugar-sweetened beverages, compared with control in Year 2. There were no other differences between groups. Simple messages about balanced diet and feeding family foods were effective in lowering commercially produced snack food consumption of the young children in low-income rural communities of Bangladesh. Provision of safe water apparently encouraged mothers to reduce offering unhealthy beverages to the young children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaniz Jannat
- School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Stephen P Luby
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - Leanne Unicomb
- Infectious Disease Division and Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Mahbubur Rahman
- Infectious Disease Division and Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Peter J Winch
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Md Iqbal Hossain
- Infectious Disease Division and Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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49
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Abstract
In 2017, an estimated 1 in every 4 (23%) children aged < 5 years were stunted worldwide. With slow progress in stunting reduction in many regions and the realization that a large proportion of stunting is not due to insufficient diet or diarrhea alone, it remains that other factors must explain continued growth faltering. Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a subclinical state of intestinal inflammation, can occur in infants across the developing world and is proposed as an immediate causal factor connecting poor sanitation and stunting. A result of chronic pathogen exposure, EED presents multiple causal pathways, and as such the scope and sensitivity of traditional water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions have possibly been unsubstantial. Although the definite pathogenesis of EED and the mechanism by which stunting occurs are yet to be defined, this paper reviews the existing literature surrounding the proposed pathology and transmission of EED in infants and considerations for nutrition and WASH interventions to improve linear growth worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Budge
- Cranfield Water Science Institute, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
| | - Alison H Parker
- Cranfield Water Science Institute, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
| | - Paul T Hutchings
- Cranfield Water Science Institute, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
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50
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Benjamin-Chung J, Colford, Jr. JM, Mertens A, Hubbard AE, Arnold BF. Internal replication of computational workflows in scientific research. Gates Open Res 2020; 4:17. [PMID: 32803129 PMCID: PMC7403855 DOI: 10.12688/gatesopenres.13108.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/30/2020] [Indexed: 03/30/2024] Open
Abstract
Failures to reproduce research findings across scientific disciplines from psychology to physics have garnered increasing attention in recent years. External replication of published findings by outside investigators has emerged as a method to detect errors and bias in the published literature. However, some studies influence policy and practice before external replication efforts can confirm or challenge the original contributions. Uncovering and resolving errors before publication would increase the efficiency of the scientific process by increasing the accuracy of published evidence. Here we summarize the rationale and best practices for internal replication, a process in which multiple independent data analysts replicate an analysis and correct errors prior to publication. We explain how internal replication should reduce errors and bias that arise during data analyses and argue that it will be most effective when coupled with pre-specified hypotheses and analysis plans and performed with data analysts masked to experimental group assignments. By improving the reproducibility of published evidence, internal replication should contribute to more rapid scientific advances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jade Benjamin-Chung
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - John M. Colford, Jr.
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Andrew Mertens
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Alan E. Hubbard
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Benjamin F. Arnold
- Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Francis I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94122, USA
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