ArticlePloS one2020
The effect of access to water, sanitation and handwashing facilities on child growth indicators: Evidence from the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2016.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions and the prevention and treatment of childhood acute malnutrition: A systematic review.Maternal & child nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Childhood Wasting and its Determinants: A Statistical Analysis Using Cross-sectional Survey Data.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2026Article
- Effect of infant feeding practices on stunting and wasting in Northwest Ethiopia: a birth cohort study.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Article
- Acceptance of an immediate postpartum intrauterine contraceptive device and associated factors among women who gave birth in public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Exploring the Association Between Household Toilet Facility Type and Chronic Malnutrition in Children Under 5 years in Ghana's Northern Zone.Environmental health insights · 2026Article
- Determinants of Improved Household Sanitation Use in Ethiopia: A Multilevel Logistic Regression Analysis.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Water quality and child undernutrition: evidence from 29 low- and middle-income countries and territories.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Factors associated with childhood undernutrition in poor Ethiopian households: Implications for public health interventions.PloS one · 2025Article
- Child undernutrition and its association with household environmental conditions in Bangladesh.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Cross-sectional study of determinants of undernutrition among children aged 6-36 months in Kabul, Afghanistan.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Co-existence of maternal overweight/obesity, child undernutrition, and anaemia among mother-child pairs in Ethiopia.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Unraveling the South Asian enigma: concurrent manifestations of child anthropometric failures and their determinants in selected South Asian countries.BMC nutrition · 2023Article
- Effects of the level of household access to water, sanitation and hygiene on the nutritional status of children under five, Benin.BMC nutrition · 2023Article
- Effect of wealth inequality on child and infant mortality in Togo.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Determinants of undernutrition among young children in Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Association between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and child undernutrition in Ethiopia: a hierarchical approach.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Moving Up the Sanitation Ladder: A Study of the Coverage and Utilization of Improved Sanitation Facilities and Associated Factors Among Households in Southern Ethiopia.Environmental health insights · 2022Article
- Effect of maternal employment on child nutritional status in Bale Robe Town, Ethiopia: a comparative cross-sectional analysis.Journal of nutritional science · 2022Article
- Child-sensitive water, sanitation, and hygiene composite score and its association with child nutritional outcomes in St. Martin's Island, Bangladesh.SAGE open medicine · 2022Article
- The association of socio-demographic and environmental factors with stunting among under-five children in Hawassa City, Sidama National Regional State, Ethiopia.Journal of nutritional science · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPoor access to water, sanitation, and handwashing (WASH) facilities frequently contribute to child growth failure. The role of access to WASH facilities on child growth outcomes in Ethiopia is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to determine individual and combined effects of access to WASH facilities on child growth outcomes.
methodsData for this analysis was sourced from the recent Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) 2016. A multivariable logistic regression model was applied to identify the separate and combined association of access to WASH facilities with child growth outcomes. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated. Statistical significance was declared at p < 0.05.
resultsIncluded in the analyses were data for children 0-59 months of age, which amounted to valid data for 9588 children with a height-for-age z-score (HAZ), 9752 children with a weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) and 9607 children with a weight-for-height z-score (WHZ). Children with access to improved combined sanitation with handwashing facilities had 29% lower odds of linear growth failure (stunting) (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.51-0.99) compared with those with unimproved. Children with access to combined improved WASH facilities were 33% less likely to have linear growth failure (AOR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.45-0.98). Access to improved handwashing alone reduced the odds of being underweight by 17% (AOR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.71-0.98) compared with unimproved. Improved water and sanitation separately as well as combined WASH were not associated with decreased odds of underweight and wasting.
conclusionsCombined access to improved water, sanitation and handwashing was associated with reduced child linear growth failure. Further research with robust methods is needed to examine whether combined WASH practices have synergistic effect on child growth outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.