Association Between Indoor Air Pollution and Cognitive Impairment Among Adults in Rural Puducherry, South India Yuvaraj Krishnamoorthy, Gokul Sarveswaran, K

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Association Between Indoor Air Pollution and Cognitive Impairment Among Adults in Rural Puducherry, South India Yuvaraj Krishnamoorthy, Gokul Sarveswaran, K Published online: 2019-09-02 Original Article Association between Indoor Air Pollution and Cognitive Impairment among Adults in Rural Puducherry, South India Yuvaraj Krishnamoorthy, Gokul Sarveswaran, K. Sivaranjini, Manikandanesan Sakthivel, Marie Gilbert Majella, S. Ganesh Kumar Department of Preventive and Background: Recent evidences showed that outdoor air pollution had significant Social Medicine, Jawaharlal influence on cognitive functioning of adults. However, little is known regarding the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and association of indoor air pollution with cognitive dysfunction. Hence, the current study was done to assess the association between indoor air pollution and cognitive Research, Puducherry, India Abstract impairment among adults in rural Puducherry. Methodology: A community‑based cross‑sectional study was done among 295 adults residing in rural field practice area of tertiary care institute in Puducherry during February and March 2018. Information regarding sociodemographic profile and household was collected using pretested semi‑structured questionnaire. Mini‑Mental State Examination was done to assess cognitive function. We calculated adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) to identify the factors associated with cognitive impairment. Results: Among 295 participants, 173 (58.6) were in 30–59 years; 154 (52.2%) were female; and 59 (20.0%) were exposed to indoor air pollution. Prevalence of cognitive impairment in the general population was 11.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.7–16.1). Prevalence of cognitive impairment among those who were exposed to indoor air pollution was 27.1% (95% CI: 17.4–39.6). Individuals exposed to indoor air pollution (aPR = 2.18, P = 0.003) were found to have two times more chance of having cognitive impairment. Conclusion: About one‑fourth of the participants were exposed to indoor air pollution, out of which more than one‑fourth was found to have cognitive impairment which is twice that of the general population. Hence, prevention of exposure to indoor air pollution needs to be done through increased availability to cleaner fuels for household usage. Keywords: Cognition, dementia, indoor air pollution Introduction burden of impairment and determining risk factors, he World Health Organization (WHO) has especially among low‑ and middle‑income countries [2] T reported that dementia will become an epidemic in like India. Understanding the environmental and the near future because of growing elderly population, social factors responsible for cognitive impairment is especially in developing countries.[1] This demands an important given the increasing elderly population keep early action to identify the persons at risk of dementia on increasing globally. and prevent the disease from occurring or treat the Address for correspondence: Dr. Marie Gilbert Majella, affected persons accordingly. Cognitive impairment is Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal the transitional phase between normal aging process and Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, dementia. Hence, screening for cognitive impairment Puducherry, India. E‑mail: [email protected] will help in recognizing the persons at risk of dementia and take corrective measures immediately. However, This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the there is limited evidence available regarding the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical Access this article online terms. Quick Response Code: Website: For reprints contact: [email protected] www.ruralneuropractice.com How to cite this article: Krishnamoorthy Y, Sarveswaran G, Sivaranjini K, DOI: Sakthivel M, Majella MG, Kumar SG. Association between indoor air 10.4103/jnrp.jnrp_123_18 pollution and cognitive impairment among adults in rural Puducherry, South India. J Neurosci Rural Pract 2018;9:529-34. © 2018 Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 529 Krishnamoorthy, et al.: Association of indoor pollution with cognition One of the environmental factors which is less studied institute which caters to a population of around 10000 but found to have significant influence on cognitive in the villages of Ramanathapuram, Thondamanatham, function is exposure to air pollutants. Studies around the Pillaiyarkuppam, and Thuthipet. The study was world have reported that the exposure to high amounts conducted during the months of February and March of air pollution can negatively impact the cognitive 2018. Individuals belonging to age group of 30 years functioning of the adults.[3‑8] Several mechanisms and above were included in the study as it is difficult have been proposed for the possible explanation on to detect the impact of air pollution and cognitive link between air pollution and cognitive dysfunction. dysfunction among younger adults. Neurological mechanisms like inflammation of The sample size was calculated by OpenEpi v 3.01 brain in response to particulate matter exposure and (v 3.01 updated on 2013, USA) using anticipated cardiovascular mechanisms are also proposed. However, proportion of cognitive impairment 25% among adults clear mechanisms have not been established yet.[9‑12] living in households with indoor air pollution; confidence Previous studies on link between the cognitive decline interval (CI) of 95%, and absolute precision of 5%, the and air pollution has reported that exposure to pollutants sample size was calculated to be 289. However, we most commonly affects specific domains such as verbal covered 295 individuals. learning, attention, logical and short‑term memory, and executive functioning. However, severe effects were Primary sampling unit was households. Numbers of reported with long‑term exposure to air pollutants.[3,6,13] households needed from each of the four villages were calculated using proportionate sampling after which; However, most of the studies were focussed on outdoor air systematic random sampling was employed to select the pollutants from traffic or industries such as sulfur‑dioxide, households from the villages. Individual belonging to the nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide, particulate matter age group of 30 years and above were the study units. The and its relationship with cognitive impairment. Less study participants were chosen from eligible individuals is known regarding the association between indoor air available in the selected households during the house pollution and cognitive dysfunction. Almost all the visit. KISH technique was applied to select one eligible studies on outdoor air pollution and cognitive dysfunction individual from the households when there were multiple have reported a significant association.[3‑8] Hence, for the eligible persons in the household. Households which were current study, we have hypothesized that there could be locked even after three visits were excluded from the study. an association between indoor air pollution and cognitive dysfunction. The WHO has reported that indoor air Four training doctors posted in RHC were chosen as pollution poses serious health risk for almost 3 billion data collectors. They were sensitized regarding the people who cook and use biomass fuels and coals for objectives of the study, confidentiality of information, household purpose.[14] Globally, indoor air pollution participant’s right, and informed consent, and were contributed to about 4.3 million deaths almost all in also trained to administer the questionnaire to the low‑ and middle‑income countries. In India, it is found individuals. Postgraduate students posted in the same to be the second leading cause of premature mortality.[14] RHC supervised the data collection procedure by According to the National Family Health Survey‑IV, about reviewing all questionnaires at the end of each day to 56.2% of households in India do not have access to clean ensure completion of data collection forms as well as fuel, contributing to indoor air pollution. Hence, more addressed any issue faced by the data collectors. focus needs to be given on indoor air pollution and its The purpose of the study and procedure involved association with cognitive impairment, especially among in the study was explained to the individuals before rural areas, who rely on biomass fuels in their households. administration of the questionnaire. Individuals were Despite the higher burden of indoor air pollution in India, also assured regarding confidentiality of the information very little research has examined the influence of indoor and data collection was started after obtaining informed air pollution on cognitive impairment in India. Hence, to consent. The interview consisted of three sections: assess this impact, the current study was done to find the the first section consisted of sociodemographic association between indoor air pollution and cognitive characteristics; the second section comprised household impairment among the adults residing in the selected details such as type of house, type of fuel used for villages of rural Puducherry, South India. cooking, place of cooking, and type of fuel used for cooking. Use of fuel for cooking was seen by direct Methodology observation; the third section consisted of Mini‑Mental A community‑based cross‑sectional study was carried State Examination (MMSE) to determine the mild out
Recommended publications
  • Exposure and Body Burden of Environmental Pollution and Risk Of
    Ingela Helmfrid Ingela Linköping University medical dissertations, No. 1699 Exposure and body burden of environmental pollutants and risk of cancer in historically contaminated areas Ingela Helmfrid Exposure and body burden of FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES environmental pollutants and risk Linköping University medical dissertations, No. 1699, 2019 of cancer in historically Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center and Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine contaminated areas Linköping University SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden www.liu.se 2019 Linköping University Medical Dissertation No. 1699 Exposure and body burden of environmental pollutants and risk of cancer in historically contaminated areas Ingela Helmfrid Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center, and Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine Linköpings universitet, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden Linköping 2019 © Ingela Helmfrid, 2019 Printed in Sweden by LiU-Tryck, Linköping University, 2019 Linköping University medical dissertations, No. 1699 ISSN 0345-0082 ISBN 978-91-7685-006-0 Exposure and body burden of environmental pollutants and risk of cancer in historically contaminated areas By Ingela Helmfrid November 2019 ISBN 978-91-7685-006-0 Linköping University medical dissertations, No. 1699 ISSN 0345-0082 Keywords: Contaminated area, cancer, exposure, metals, POPs, Consumption of local food Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center, and Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine Linköping University SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden Preface This thesis is transdisciplinary, integrating toxicology, epidemiology and risk assessment, and involving academic institutions as well as national, regional and local authorities. Systematic and transparent methods for the characterization of human environmental exposure to site-specific pollutants in populations living in historically contaminated areas were used.
    [Show full text]
  • The First Line in the Above Code Defines a New Variable Called “Anemic”; the Second Line Assigns Everyone a Value of (-) Or No Meaning They Are Not Anemic
    The first line in the above code Defines a new variable called “anemic”; the second line assigns everyone a value of (-) or No meaning they are not anemic. The first and second If commands recodes the “anemic” variable to (+) or Yes if they meet the specified criteria for hemoglobin level and sex. A Note to Epi Info DOS users: Using the DOS version of Epi you had to be very careful about using the Recode and If/Then commands to avoid recoding a missing value in the original variable to a code in the new variable. In the Windows version, if the original value is missing, then the new variable will also usually be missing, but always verify this. Always Verify Coding It is recommended that you List the original variable(s) and newly defined variables to make sure the coding worked as you expected. You can also use the Tables and Means command for double-checking the accuracy of the new coding. Use of Else … The Else part of the If command is usually used for categorizing into two groups. An example of the code is below which separates the individuals in the viewEvansCounty data into “younger” and “older” age categories: DEFINE agegroup3 IF AGE<50 THEN agegroup3="Younger" ELSE agegroup3="Older" END Use of Parentheses ( ) For the Assign and If/Then/Else commands, for multiple mathematical signs, you may need to use parentheses. In a command, the order of mathematical operations performed is as follows: Exponentiation (“^”), multiplication (“*”), division (“/”), addition (“+”), and subtraction (“-“). For example, the following command ASSIGNs a value to a new variable called calc_age based on an original variable AGE (in years): ASSIGN calc_age = AGE * 10 / 2 + 20 For example, a 14 year old would have the following calculation: 14 * 10 / 2 + 20 = 90 First, the multiplication is performed (14 * 10 = 140), followed by the division (140 / 2 = 70), and then the addition (70 + 20 = 90).
    [Show full text]
  • Diagnostic Value of Alpha-Fetoprotein Combined with Neutrophil-To
    Hu et al. BMC Gastroenterology (2018) 18:186 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12876-018-0908-6 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Diagnostic value of alpha-fetoprotein combined with neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio for hepatocellular carcinoma Jian Hu1†, Nianyue Wang2†, Yongfeng Yang2,LiMa2, Ruilin Han3, Wei Zhang4, Cunling Yan3*, Yijie Zheng5* and Xiaoqin Wang1* Abstract Background: To investigate the diagnostic performance of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as well as their combinations with other markers. Methods: Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), AFP and levels as well as the numbers of neutrophils and lymphocytes of all enrolled patients were collected. The NLR was calculated by dividing the number of neutrophils by the number of lymphocytes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to determine the ability of each marker and combination of markers to distinguish HCC and liver disease patients. Results: In total, 545 patients were included in this study. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values for AFP, ALT, AST, and NLR were 0.775 (0.738–0.810), 0.504 (0.461–0.547), 0.660 (0.618–0.699), and 0.738 (0.699–0.774) with optimal cut-off values of 24.6 ng/mL, 111 IU/mL, 27 IU/mL, and 2.979, respectively. Of the four biomarkers, AFP and NLR showed comparable specificity (0.881 and 0.858) and sensitivity (0.561 and 0.539). The combination of AFP and NLR showed the highest AUC (0.769) with a significantly higher sensitivity (0.767) and a lower specificity (0.773) compared to AFP or NLR alone, and it had the highest sum of sensitivity and specificity (1.54) among all combinations.
    [Show full text]
  • Research a Retrospective Comparison of Dental Hygiene Supervision Changes from 2001 to 2011
    Research A Retrospective Comparison of Dental Hygiene Supervision Changes from 2001 to 2011 April V. Catlett, RDH, BHSA, MDH; Robert Greenlee, PhD Introduction Abstract Several factors contribute to the Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent of poor dental health of low-income change in the professional practice environment for dental hy- populations in the U.S. Some of the gienists in the 50 states and District of Columbia by comparing most significant factors that contrib- the state supervision requirements for dental hygienists during ute to this lack of access to care are a 2001 to 2011 to the previous 7 year period, 1993 to 2000. shortage of dentists, poor participa- Methods: A retrospective comparison evaluation was conduct- tion of dentists in public assistance ed using the 2 tables entitled “Tasks Permitted and Mandat- programs and dental hygiene prac- ed Supervision of Dental Hygienists by State, 1993, 1998 and tice acts.1 The dental hygiene prac- 2000” and “Dental Hygiene Practice Act Overview: Permitted tice act supervision requirements, Functions and Supervision Levels by State.” To score the net dictated by state dental boards, lim- change in supervision, a numerical score was assigned to each it the dental workforce conditions. level of alteration in supervision with a +1 or -1 for each level In 2006, the dentist-to-population of change. ratio in the U.S. was 5.8 dentists per 10,000 residents.1 In May 2010, Results: With a 95% confidence level, the mean change in there were over 25% more dental dental hygiene supervision from 2001 to 2011 was 6.57 with a hygienists as general dentists in the standard deviation of 5.70 (p-value=0.002).
    [Show full text]
  • An Examination of Epidemiological Study Designs in Veterinary Science Jonah Nelson Cullen Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2016 An examination of epidemiological study designs in veterinary science Jonah Nelson Cullen Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Epidemiology Commons, and the Veterinary Medicine Commons Recommended Citation Cullen, Jonah Nelson, "An examination of epidemiological study designs in veterinary science" (2016). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 15687. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/15687 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An examination of epidemiological study designs in veterinary science by Jonah N. Cullen A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major: Veterinary Preventive Medicine Program of Study Committee: Annette M. O’Connor, Major Professor Duck-chul Lee Kenneth J. Koehler Jeffrey J. Zimmerman Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2016 Copyright © Jonah N. Cullen, 2016. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my amazing wife Kelly, and always-supportive parents Dan and Jeanne. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Clujul Medical MIRUNA ANTONESEI, SORINA DOMNIŢA, IOAN VICTOR POP
    - Clujul Editor Medical - Revistă de Medicină şi Farmacie Dan L. Dumitraşcu Nr. 2, Vol. LXXXII, 2009 ISSN 1222-2119 Comitet de redacție CUPRINS (Editorial board) Monica Acalovschi Editorial ............................................................................................................... 155 (Cluj-Napoca) Andrei Achimaş (Cluj-Napoca) Articole de orientare Doina Azoicăi (Iaşi) Patologie digestivă Radu Badea (Cluj-Napoca) Fiziologia motilității veziculei biliare (articol în engleză) Grigore Băciuţ (Cluj-Napoca) PIeRO PORTINCASA .......................................................................................................... 157 Gyorgy Benedek (Szeged) Marius Bojiţă (Cluj-Napoca) Motilitatea și tranzitul în intestinul subțire (articol în engleză) Anca Buzoianu (Cluj-Napoca) JueRGeN BARNeRT .......................................................................................................... 161 Radu Câmpeanu (Cluj-Napoca) Patologie imunologică Constantin Ciuce (Cluj-Napoca) evaziunea imună - factor important în patogeneza infecţiei cu virusul citomegalic Mihai Coculescu (Bucureşti) eRICA CHIOReAN, NICOLAe MIRON, VICTOR CRISTeA ........................................... 167 Sorin Dudea (Cluj-Napoca) Dorin Farcău (Cluj-Napoca) Aspecte actuale în imunodeficienţa comună variabilă Ion Fulga (Bucureşti) MARIANA MARC, ALINA GRAMA, CORINA CORPODeAN ....................................... 171 Jean-Paul Galmiche (Nantes) Modificări ale statusului imunologic la vârstnici Alexandru Georgescu CRISTINA CăTANă, VICTOR CRISTeA
    [Show full text]
  • COVID-19 PANDEMIC and BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE to SELF-MEDICATION PRACTICE in WESTERN UGANDA Authors: Samuel S
    medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.02.20248576; this version posted January 4, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license . COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE TO SELF-MEDICATION PRACTICE IN WESTERN UGANDA Authors: Samuel S. Dare1, Ejike Daniel Eze1, Echoru Isaac1, Ibe Michael Usman2, Fred Ssempijja2, Edmund Eriya Bukenya1, Robinson Ssebuufu3 Affiliations: 1 School of Medicine, Kabale University, Uganda 2 Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Kampala International University Western Campus, Uganda 3 Faculty of Clinical Medicine and Dentistry, Kampala International University Teaching Hospital, Uganda Corresponding Author: Samuel S. Dare, Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Background Self-medication has become is a serious public health problem globally posing great risks, especially with the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 disease in Uganda. This is may be partly because of the absence of a recognized treatment for the disease, however, the prevalence and nature differ from country to country which may influence human behavioural responses. Aim This study aimed to investigated the beharioural response of the community towards self- medication practices during this COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Methods A cross sectional household and online survey was conducted during the months of June-to- August. The study was conducted among adult between age 18 above in communities of western Uganda who consented to participate in the study. Study participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique and sampling was done by sending a structured online questionnaire via Google forms and a printed copies questionnaire made available to other participants that did not use the online questionnaire Results The percentage of respondents that know about self-medication is (97%) and those that practice self-medication are approximately (88%).
    [Show full text]
  • Cross-Sectional Study Design
    Cross-sectional Study Design İlker Kayı, MD, DPH Koç University School of Medicine 10th RMHS, 2019 Outline • Design of x-sectional studies • Measures obtained in x-sectional studies • When to use • Sample selection • Sample size calculation Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8vaYG5z5lw CASE-CONTROL STUDY Exposure X-SECTIONAL STUDY Outcome COHORT STUDY What kind of study? Definition • Cross-sectional studies examine the relationship between diseases (or other health-related characteristics) and other variables of interest as they exist in a defined population at a particular point in time. • “Snapshot” of a society • Prevalence studies • Disease frequency studies X-Sectional Studies • The study domain of a survey is a particular segment of a demographic population, or, within a geographical area, a collection of institutions or other functional units in health care. • The population surveyed can be very large, as in national surveys, or relatively small, as when a single school or village is surveyed. • The occurrence relation usually involves many different outcomes of interest. • The interest may be whether a factor has an association with the outcome and/or whether determinant-outcome relations differ according to third variables (such as sociodemographic characters etc.) X-Sectional studies • Data collection tool: Surveys, health records (databases), clinical observations • Direction: None • People are studied at a “point” in time, without follow-up. • Outcome measure: Prevalence • A cross-sectional study can be combined with
    [Show full text]
  • 32942.Pdf (3.33
    MP RJ Vaitinadin – PhD Epidemiology Dissertation A Study of Cardiometabolic Traits and their Progression, over a Decade, in a Croatian Island Population A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Division of Epidemiology of the Department of Environmental Health of the College of Medicine by Nataraja Sarma Vaitinadin M.B.B.S. - Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research M.P.H. - University of Cincinnati March, 2019 Committee Chair: Ranjan Deka, Ph.D. 1 MP RJ Vaitinadin – PhD Epidemiology Dissertation Abstract The growth of computation and big data have allowed us to ask more and more complex questions about healthcare. One of the key questions being asked is about using data to predict outcomes. With the alarming rise in cardiometabolic diseases, and associated healthcare costs, it is about time to focus energy and resources on developing methodologies to predict disease status in the future. We have implemented a productive workflow that takes data from epidemiologic field studies, to develop prediction models to determine disease status a decade into the future. The models were tested for accuracy and were used to develop a diagnostic test. The test was validated using an ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve. Further, the model was cross validated on untrained data. The robustness of the approach was demonstrated across four different disease outcomes – high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, diabetes and gout. We further examined changes in biomarker measurements at the population level, over time and with sex.
    [Show full text]
  • Operational Research on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Kit for Emergencies
    Final report: Operational Research on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Kit for Emergencies Somalia (Dilla & Alleybadey) Credit: IFRC October 2015 Report developed by Somali Red Crescent Society 1 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3 Background ................................................................................................................................... 4 Research Protocol and Target Population ............................................................................... 5 TARGET POPULATION ......................................................................................................... 5 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 5 BASELINE SURVEY STUDY DESIGN .................................................................................... 6 SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION. ....................................................................................... 6 Sampling frame......................................................................................................................... 6 Data collection and quality control ......................................................................................... 6 Ethical approval and consent ................................................................................................. 7 Data entry and analysis ..........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Individual and Community Level Factors with a Significant Role In
    Alemu et al. Archives of Public Health (2017) 75:27 DOI 10.1186/s13690-017-0193-9 RESEARCH Open Access Individual and community level factors with a significant role in determining child height-for-age Z score in East Gojjam Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis Zewdie Aderaw Alemu1,2*, Ahmed Ali Ahmed2, Alemayehu Worku Yalew2, Belay Simanie Birhanu3 and Benjamin F. Zaitchik4 Abstract Background: In Ethiopia, child undernutrition remains to be a major public health challenge and a contributing factor for child mortality and morbidity. To reduce the problem, it is apparent to identify determinants of child undernutrition in specific contexts to deliver appropriately, targeted, effective and sustainable interventions. Methods: An agroecosystem linked cross-sectional survey was conducted in 3108 children aged 6–59 months. Multistage cluster sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics, child anthropometry and on potential immediate, underlying and basic individual and community level determinants of child undernutrition using the UNICEF conceptual framework. Analysis was done using STATA 13 after checking for basic assumptions of linear regression. Important variables were selected and individual and community level determinants of child height-for-age Z score were identified. P values less than 0.05 were considered the statistical level of significance. Results: In the intercept only model and full models, 3.8% (p < 0.001) and 1.4% (p < 0.001) of the variability were due to cluster level variability. From individual level factors, child age in months, child sex, number of under five children, immunization status, breast feeding initiation time, mother nutritional status, diarrheal morbidity, household level water treatment and household dietary diversity were significant determinants of child height for age Z score.
    [Show full text]
  • Intervention on Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections in Central Java, Indonesia: a Pilot Study
    Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Article Impact of the “BALatrine” Intervention on Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections in Central Java, Indonesia: A Pilot Study 1 1, , 2 3 4 Darren J Gray , Johanna M Kurscheid y * , MJ Park , Budi Laksono , Dongxu Wang , Archie CA Clements 5,6, Suharyo Hadisaputro 7, Ross Sadler 8 and Donald E Stewart 8 1 Department of Global Health, Research School of Population Health, the Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia; [email protected] 2 College of Nursing, Konyang University, Deajeon 35365, Korea; [email protected] 3 Yayasan Wahanna Bakti Sehatera (YWBS) Foundation, Semarang 50183, Indonesia; [email protected] 4 Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia; [email protected] 5 Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia; [email protected] 6 Telethon Kids Institute, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia 7 Poltekkes Kemenkes Semarang 50268, Indonesia; [email protected] 8 School of Medicine, Griffith University and Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4222, Australia; ross.sadler@griffith.edu.au (R.S.); donald.stewart@griffith.edu.au (D.E.S.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Joint first Author. y Received: 12 November 2019; Accepted: 4 December 2019; Published: 6 December 2019 Abstract: Many latrine campaigns in developing countries fail to be sustained because the introduced latrine is not appropriate to local socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions, and there is an inadequate community health education component. We tested a low-cost, locally designed and constructed all-weather latrine (the “BALatrine”), together with community education promoting appropriate hygiene-related behaviour, to determine whether this integrated intervention effectively controlled soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections.
    [Show full text]