Effect of a Community Health Worker Led Health Education Intervention on Latrine Coverage in Mwingi West Sub-County; Kenya: A Quasi-Experiment
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Date
2018
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Publisher
American Journal of Public Health Research
Abstract
It is estimated that globally 2.4 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation and 946 million
still practice open defecation. Every Kenyan has a right to adequate sanitation and the government of Kenya is
committed to ensure that Kenyans enjoy adequate sanitation by the year 2030. Despite this commitment, latrine
coverage in many parts of Kenya is low and the result is a high prevalence of hygiene and sanitation related illnesses.
In Kitui County, open defecation is high at 30.9%. The aim of this study was to assess effect of Community Healthy
Strategy (CHS) on latrine coverage in Mwingi West sub county, Kitui County-Kenya. The study was a pretest-post test experiment with intervention and control sites. Mwingi West and Mwingi North sub-counties were intervention
and control sites respectively. Participants in intervention site received health education on importance latrine
construction and safe fecal disposal while control site did not. In each site, 1 pre-intervention and 2 post-intervention
surveys were conducted with each survey having a sample size of 422 households. An observation checklist and a
questionnaire were the main data collection tools. In the intervention site, CHS significantly increased latrine
coverage from baseline to midterm survey and from baseline to end-term survey by 21% (Z=7.0128, P=0.0001) and
27.6% (Z=9.7189, P=0.0001) respectively. Compared to baseline, households in intervention site-midterm survey
and intervention site-endterm survey were 4 times more likely to have a latrine (adj. OR: 4.356, P<0.0001, 95% CI:
2.975-6.379 and 3 times more likely to have a latrine (adj. OR: 3.391, P<0.0001, 95% CI: 2.686-4.280) respectively.
No significant difference was observed on latrine coverage in the control site. CHS significantly increased latrine
coverage in Mwingi West Sub-county. To declare Kenya an Open Defecation Free country and help the country
meet the global sanitation related Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, county governments need to scale up
implementation of CHS to cover areas which have not been covered.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Community Health Strategy, Community Health Workers, latrine coverage, sanitation
Citation
Japheth Mativo Nzioki and Agnes Korir. Effect of a Community Health Worker Led Health Education Intervention on Latrine Coverage in Mwingi West Sub-County; Kenya: A Quasi-Experiment. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2018; 6(3):134-138. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-6-3-2