Prevalence of open air defecation and awareness and practices of sanitary latrine usage in a rural village of Raipur district

Abstract

Background: The practice of open defecation is rampant in India and our country is home to the world’s largest population of people who defecate in the open. Insanitary disposal of human excreta, along with unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene conditions, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries. The study was conducted with objective to find sanitary latrine usage, prevalence of open air defecation and awareness related to diseases caused by open air defecation in the rural population of a village in Raipur district.Methods: A total of 155 households were selected for the study using simple random sampling technique by lottery method. One member from each household, preferably the head of the family (if not available, any elder person in the family), was interviewed personally. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information regarding the background characteristics, awareness and practices about sanitary latrine usage. Results: Majority of the study participants 109 (70.3%) had sanitary latrines in their houses. The prevalence of open air defecation in the study area was found to be 23.2%. Around 2/3rd (65.2%) of study subjects were not aware about spread of disease due to open air defecation. Conclusions: Awareness regarding spread of diseases due to open air defecation is poor. Effective political commitment and administrative support will be the key points of success of the Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan program.

Factors associated with open air defecation in a rural field practice area of a medical college: a cross sectional study

“…14 In this study majority of the study participants were unaware of Government facilities of construction for toilets. This is similar to study done by Kumar et al and Panda et al 11,12…”

“…This is similar to study conducted by Bathija et al and Bharadwaj et al 13,17 In this study majority of the study participants has sanitary latrine in their houses (52.5%). This is similar to study done by Panda et al 11 In this study 15.6% of households practiced open air defecation in spite of having toilets in their homes. This is similar to a study done by Venkateswarlu et al 14 In this study majority of the study participants belongs to >51 years of age, males were more in number and no significant association was found with open air defecation.…”

“…In this study majority of the study participants were illiterates and significant association was found with open air defecation. This is similar to study done by Jeratagi et al, Kumar et al and Panda et al 11,12,15 In this study majority of the study participants were farmers by occupations. In this study the reasons for using toilets includes most of the participants (54.6%) were reported that having sanitary latrine is hygienic.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practices related to prevention of parasitic infestations among school children in an urban area of Kancheepuram district

“…In the present study, nearly half of the children practised (45.7%) open air defecation which is higher when compared to the findings of the study done by Anuradha in Tamilnadu which showed the prevalence of open air defecation to be 33.1% and to the findings of the study done by Panda in Raipur which showed the prevalence of open air defecation to be 23.2%. 4,5 The presence of higher prevalence of open air defection in the present study indicates that there is a gap between the knowledge level of participants regarding open air defecation and their practice of the same.…”

A study to assess the awareness and practice regarding utilization of sanitary toilet in the rural villages of Kalaburagi district

“…The prevalence (p) of knowledge about sanitary toilet use was found to be 60% (Sidhraj J study), q = 100-p and d for error as 5% at 95% confidence interval. 7 They were selected randomly to ascertain the validity of the questionnaire and feasibility of the study. All the persons above 12 years from each household, who were permanent residents of the village, were selected by simple random sampling technique using computer generated random table method.…”