Impact of change in household hygiene conditions on morbidity in India: Evidence from longitudinal survey

• Main Authors: N. Brahmanandam, R. Nagarajan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-07-01
• Series: Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health
• Subjects: Any short term morbidity; Household hygiene conditions; India Human development survey; Longitudinal data and India
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213398421001019

The maintenance of good hygiene is more important to prevent communicable and infectious diseases. Therefore, the main aim of this study to assess the impact of change in household hygiene conditions on morbidity. The results from multivariate linear regression have shown that the percentage share of households members fell sick due to any short term morbidity were significantly higher (β = 0.053, P < 0.001) among the households who had lived in the poor hygiene conditions in both years in 2005 and 2011 compared to the households who were lived in the better-off hygienic condition in both years in 2005 and 2011 after controlling various socio-economic variables. The household members who fell sick due to any short term morbidity had significantly declined (β = −0.028, P < 0.04) among the households who were lived in the poor condition in 2005, but transformed into better off hygienic condition as a compared to the households who were lived in the poor hygienic condition in both years in 2005 and 2011. Similarly, the results from multinomial logistic regression shown that prevalence of any short term morbidity was significantly less likely among the households who were livid remain in the better-off hygienic condition in both years in 2005 and 2011 (2.8%; p < 0.01) as compared to other households who were lived remain in the poor hygiene conditions in 2005 and 2011 (4.8%). Findings of this study suggest that not only improve the water and sanitation facilities which are prerequisites for hygiene but also improve the hygienic behavior of the households through social media.