ArticleThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene2012
Impact of a hygiene curriculum and the installation of simple handwashing and drinking water stations in rural Kenyan primary schools on student health and hygiene practices.
Article in The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of school-based hygiene intervention programme: Systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness of interventions to improve drinking water, sanitation, and handwashing with soap on risk of diarrhoeal disease in children in low-income and middle-income settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Lancet (London, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Hand-washing promotion for preventing diarrhoea.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools in Low-Income Countries: A Review of Evidence of Impact.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Hand Hygiene Intervention Strategies to Reduce Diarrhoea and Respiratory Infections among Schoolchildren in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Pooled it
- Interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Hand washing promotion for preventing diarrhoea.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- A systematic review of factors affecting children's right to health in cluster randomized trials in Kenya.Trials · 2014Pooled it
- Methodology for measuring behavior change dictates the perceived effectiveness of school-based WASH interventions.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Effects of a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Mobile Health Program on Respiratory Illness in Bangladesh: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of the CHoBI7 Mobile Health Program.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2022Trial
- Impact of a school-based water, sanitation and hygiene programme on children's independent handwashing and toothbrushing habits: a cluster-randomised trial.International journal of public health · 2020Trial
- Effect of Improved Water Quality, Sanitation, Hygiene and Nutrition Interventions on Respiratory Illness in Young Children in Rural Bangladesh: A Multi-Arm Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Trial
- The impact of a school-based water supply and treatment, hygiene, and sanitation programme on pupil diarrhoea: a cluster-randomized trial.Epidemiology and infection · 2014Trial
- "Gives us peace of mind for keeping our hands clean": targeted handwashing intervention increases water use and hand hygiene in rural Alaska.International journal of circumpolar health · 2025Article
- A Quasi-Experimental Pre-Post Assessment of Hand Hygiene Practices and Hand Dirtiness Following a School-Based Educational Campaign.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- WASH and learn: a scoping review of health, education and gender equity outcomes of school-based water, sanitation and hygiene in low-income and middle-income countries.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Modular decentralized water system associated with improved child health and increased in-home water use in remote Alaska Native communities.Journal of water and health · 2025Article
- Estimating spatially disaggregated probability of severe COVID-19 and the impact of handwashing interventions: The case of Zimbabwe.PloS one · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
School-based hygiene and water treatment programs increase student knowledge, improve hygiene, and decrease absenteeism, however health impact studies of these programs are lacking. We collected baseline information from students in 42 schools in Kenya. We then instituted a curriculum on safe water and hand hygiene and installed water stations in half ("intervention schools"). One year later, we implemented the intervention in remaining schools. Through biweekly student household visits and two annual surveys, we compared the effect of the intervention on hygiene practices and reported student illness. We saw improvement in proper handwashing techniques after the school program was introduced. We observed a decrease in the median percentage of students with acute respiratory illness among those exposed to the program; no decrease in acute diarrhea was seen. Students in this school program exhibited sustained improvement in hygiene knowledge and a decreased risk of respiratory infections after the intervention.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.