Therapeutic Research

Abstract

Background: In many parts of Asia, rural children’s development is hindered by gastrointestinal diseases. Those diseases can result from environmental contamination with human waste. Purpose: Our objective was to pilot‒test a combined structural‒behavioral intervention to prevent contamination of rural children’s environment with human waste. The intervention combined latrine construction with health education. One concern was the feasibility of collecting data regarding children. Methods: For this pilot study, children in two Indonesian rural villages were asked whether they saw human feces around their homes. Then the intervention（latrine construction and health education）was implemented in only one of the villages. Eight months later, the children’s observations of contamination around their homes were assessed again in both villages. Results: No children were lost to follow‒up. Between baseline and follow‒up, the percentage of children who reported seeing feces around their homes increased in the control village（from 53.1％ to 65.3％）, but it decreased in the intervention village（from 62.0％ to 42.0％）. The two villages did not differ at baseline（odds ratio 0.70, 95％ confidence interval 0.31‒1.56）, but they differed markedly at follow‒up（odds ratio 2.57, 95％ CI 1.14‒5.92）. Conclusions: With data provided by children, we documented a reduction of fecal contamination of the home environment. Scaling up to a village‒cluster‒randomized trial including multiple villages in each arm will give more precise information about the intervention’s effectiveness. To the extent that these results are reproduced, this intervention can improve rural children’s health.