Wealth status and sex differential of household head: implication for source of drinking water in Nigeria

Abstract

BackgroundSource of potable water has implication on the population health. Availability of Improved Drinking Water Sources (IDWS) is a problem in developing countries, but variation exists across segments of the population. This study therefore examined the relationship between wealth status, sex of household head and source of potable water.MethodsThe 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data was used. A representative sample of 40,680 households was selected for the survey, with a minimum target of 943 completed interviews per state covering the entire population residing in non-institutional dwelling units in the country. Households where information on drinking water sources was not reported were excluded, thus reducing the sample to 38021. The dependent and key independent variables were IDWS and Wealth Index respectively. Data were analysed using Chi-square and binary logistic regression (α = .05).ResultsHouseholds that used IDWS were headed by females (66.7 %) than males (58.7 %). Highest proportion of households who used IDWS was found in the rich wealth index group (76.7 %). The likelihood of using IDWS was higher in household headed by females (OR = 1.41; C.I = 1.33–1.49, p <0.001). Households that belong to rich wealth index and middle class were 5.06(C.I = 4.81–5.32, p <0.001) and 2.62(C.I = 2.46–2.78, p <0.001) respectively times more likely to IDWS than the poor. This pattern was sustained when other confounding variables were introduced into the regression equation as control.ConclusionsHouseholds headed by women used improved drinking water sources than those headed by men. However, wealth index has strong influence on the strength of relationship between sex of household head and improved drinking water sources.

Determinants of Households’ Access to Improved Drinking Water Sources: A Secondary Analysis of Eswatini 2010 and 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys

“…is finding conflicts with most studies, which found that female-headed households were more likely to have access to improved drinking water sources [14,26,39]. e reason could be that a majority of the households with low access to improved drinking water sources in our study were located in rural areas, where most of the HH are headed by females, many of whom are housewives and therefore do not have adequate financial resources to acquire improved drinking water sources.…”

“…e findings in this study also showed that there were higher odds of access to improved drinking water sources among households in urban areas (a 43 points increase between the two years), in line with studies conducted in Ghana and Vietnam, whereby households in urban areas were also found to have higher odds of access to improved drinking water sources [27,43]. e scarcity of improved drinking water in rural areas is well documented and is evidenced by the high prevalence of waterborne illness in rural areas such as diarrhea, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and intestinal helminths which can be attributed explicitly to unsafe water, poor sanitation, and the lack of hygiene [39]. Improvements in the water supply or water quality have been cited to be one of the effective interventions to reduce diarrheal diseases up to one third [40].…”

“…Education is regarded as a socioeconomic indicator [40]. Current evidence in literature indicates a positive relationship between the educational attainment of the household head and the likelihood of having access to improved drinking water sources [39]. Contrary to the literature, this study found no significant difference in household access to the improved drinking water source by the education level of the household head, possibly because affordability seemed to be the main issue for many HH with access to unimproved water sources in this study sample, especially in rural areas.…”

Perceived effect of climate change on forest dependent livelihoods in Oyo State, Nigeria

“…This implies that there were more male headed households in the study area. The result is similar to the findings of Morakinyo et al (2015) who reported that most households in Nigeria were headed by male. The age category with the highest percentage of respondents was 41-50 years (32.7%).…”

A Disaggregated Analysis of Wealth Status and Educational Attainment in Nigeria Using the Multinomial Logit Approach

“…In analyzing the wealth status and sex differentials of households, and how they affect the source of drinking water in Nigeria, Morakinyo et al (2015) found that the wealth status of a particular Nigerian household has a severe influence on the relationship between the sex of the household head and an improved source of drinking water. Lamidi (2015) studied the demographics of Nigerian households with threatened livelihoods, with data from the Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS).…”