Measuring the benefits of water quality, sanitation, handwashing and nutritional interventions for improving health and child development (WASH Benefits) The study includes two randomized trials in two rural communities in Bangladesh and Kenya. It will measure the effect of providing improved household compound-level WASH and nutritional interventions, alone and in combination.
The WASH Benefits study includes two highly comparable randomized trials in rural communities -- one in Bangladesh, one in Kenya -- that will measure the effect of providing improved household compound-level WASH and nutritional interventions, alone and in combination, to a large birth cohort of children.
These are efficacy trials: measuring the effect of the interventions delivered by the research project and at no cost to participants (as opposed to delivered in a programmatic setting). Therefore, this project provides WASH hardware and behavior change activities to compounds in rural communities and measures health and child development outcomes among young children receiving these interventions. Child development as measured by communication, gross motor, and personal/social domains. The cost of the interventions is a small fraction of the total cost of the trial.
Mission
Primary scientific objectives: - Measure the impact of sanitation, water quality, handwashing and nutrition interventions (see below for details) on child diarrhoea and linear growth after 2 years of exposure. - Determine whether there are larger reductions in child diarrhoea when providing a combined water, sanitation and handwashing intervention compared to each component alone. - Determine whether there are larger effects on child diarrhoea and linear growth from combining (A) a comprehensive child nutrition intervention with ( B ) a combined water, sanitation and handwashing intervention compared to A or B alone. Secondary scientific objectives: - Measure the impact of a child nutritional intervention and household environmental interventions on environmental enteropathy biomarkers (e.g., lactulose, mannitol, myeloperoxidase, alpha-1 antitrypsin, neopterin, total IgG), and more clearly elucidate this potential pathway between environmental interventions and child growth and development. - Measure the impact of sanitation, water quality, handwashing and nutritional interventions on intestinal parasitic infection prevalence and intensity by conducting Kato-Katz, PCR, and ELISA on stool samples. - Measure the association between parasitic infection and other measures of enteric health, including acute diarrhoea and environmental enteropathy biomarkers.Approach
Research or implementation partners: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b): Implement study activities in Bangladesh, scientific oversight, ethical review, data collection, and laboratory analyses in Bangladesh Innovations for Poverty Action, Kenya (IPAK) : scientific oversight and data collection in Kenya Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI): ethical review and laboratory analyses in Kenya Stanford University, USA: scientific oversight for both Bangladesh and Kenya Emory University, USA: scientific oversight in Kenya and input on design in both countries Johns Hopkins University, USA: guidance of intervention implementation and process evaluations in Bangladesh University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA: guidance on the handwashing intervention Wagner College, USA: laboratory analyses for a portion of the environmental enteropathy assessment University of California, Davis, USA: guidance on the nutrition intervention University of California, Berkeley, USA: scientific oversight, coordination between Bangladesh and Kenya, ethical review, and guidance on design and analysis The Ministries of Health in Bangladesh and Kenya are aware of the trials, but since these are efficacy trials they are not directly connected to Ministry activities.Project website: WASH benefits
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Filter / Tags
Rural areasWASH and nutritionBehaviour changeHealth and hygieneSpecific to one or several countriesOtherSanitation systems and technology options (WG4)WASH and nutrition (WG12)Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationRuralJournalistsUniversity, education or research institution
Related Countries
BangladeshKenya
Project location
