CGPH FACULTY: John Colford
DATE OF PUBLICATION: April 2011
REGION: Latin America
REFERENCE: Christen A, Duran Pacheco G, Hattendorf J, Arnold BF, Cevallos M, Indergand S, Colford JM, Mäusezahl D. Factors associated with compliance among users of solar water disinfection in rural Bolivia. BMC Public Health. 2011 Apr 4;11:210. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-210.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of childhood mortality, with an estimated 1.3 million deaths per year. Promotion of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) has been suggested as a strategy for reducing the global burden of diarrhoea by improving the microbiological quality of drinking water. Most of the observed household characteristics showed limited potential to predict compliance with a comprehensive, year-long SODIS-promotion campaign; this finding reflects the complexity of behaviour change in the context of household water treatment. However, our findings also suggest that the motivation to adopt new water treatment habits and to acquire new knowledge about drinking water treatment is associated with prior engagements in sanitary hygiene and with the experience of contemporary family health concerns.Household-level factors like the ownership of a latrine, a large proportion of females and the presence of a malnourished child living in a home are easily assessable indicators that SODIS-programme managers could use to identify early adopters in SODIS promotion campaigns.
ACCESS: Link to Pubmed