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Background: Diarrhea and acute respiratory infection (ARI) are leading causes of death in children. The WASH Benefits Bangladesh trial implemented a multicomponent sanitation intervention that led to a 39% reduction in the prevalence of diarrhea among children and a 25% reduction for ARI, measured 1 to 2 years after intervention implementation. We measured longer-term intervention effects on these outcomes between 1 to 3.5 years after intervention implementation, including periods with differing intensity of behavioral promotion.Methods and Findings: WASH Benefits Bangladesh was a cluster-randomized controlled trial of water, sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition interventions (NCT01590095). The sanitation intervention included provision of or upgrades to improved latrines, sani-scoops for feces removal, children's potties, and in-person behavioral promotion. Promotion was intensive up to 2 years after intervention initiation, decreased in intensity between years 2 to 3, and stopped after 3 years. Access to and reported use of latrines was high in both arms, and latrine quality was significantly improved by the intervention, while use of child feces management tools was low. We enrolled a random subset of households from the sanitation and control arms into a longitudinal substudy, which measured child health with quarterly visits between 1 to 3.5 years after intervention implementation. The study period therefore included approximately 1 year of high-intensity promotion, 1 year of low-intensity promotion, and 6 months with no promotion. We assessed intervention effects on diarrhea and ARI prevalence among children <5 years through intention-to-treat analysis using generalized linear models with robust standard errors. Masking was not possible during data collection, but data analysis was masked. We enrolled 720 households (360 per arm) from the parent trial and made 9,800 child observations between June 2014 and December 2016. Over the entire study period, diarrheal prevalence was lower among children in the sanitation arm (11.9%) compared to the control arm (14.5%) (prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.81, 95% CI 0.66, 1.00, p = 0.05; prevalence difference [PD] = -0.027, 95% CI -0.053, 0, p = 0.05). ARI prevalence did not differ between sanitation (21.3%) and control (22.7%) arms (PR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.82, 1.05, p = 0.23; PD = -0.016, 95% CI -0.043, 0.010, p = 0.23). There were no significant differences in intervention effects between periods with high-intensity versus low-intensity/no promotion. Study limitations include use of caregiver-reported symptoms to define health outcomes and limited data collected after promotion ceased.Conclusions: The observed effect of the WASH Benefits Bangladesh sanitation intervention on diarrhea in children appeared to be sustained for at least 3.5 years after implementation, including 1.5 years after heavy promotion ceased. Existing latrine access was high in the study setting, suggesting that improving on-site latrine quality can deliver health benefits when latrine use practices are in place. Further work is needed to understand how latrine adoption can be achieved and sustained in settings with low existing access and how sanitation programs can adopt transformative approaches of excreta management, including safe disposal of child and animal feces, to generate a hygienic home environment.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT01590095; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01590095. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Children may be at higher risk for swimming-associated illness following exposure to fecally-contaminated recreational waters. We analyzed a pooled data set of over 80,000 beachgoers from 13 beach sites across the United States to compare risks associated with the fecal indicator bacteria Enterococcus spp. (measured by colony forming units, CFU and quantitative polymerase chain reaction cell equivalents, qPCR CE) for different age groups across different exposures, sites and health endpoints. Methods Sites were categorized according to the predominant type of fecal contamination (human or non-human). Swimming exposures of varying intensity were considered according to degree of contact and time spent in the water. Health endpoints included gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms and skin rashes. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the risk of illness as a function of fecal contamination in water as measured by Enterococcus spp. among the exposed groups. Non-swimmers (those who did not enter the water) were excluded from the models to reduce bias and facilitate comparison across groups. Results Gastrointestinal symptoms were the most sensitive health endpoint and strongest associations were observed with Enterococcus qPCR CE at sites impacted by human fecal contamination. Under several exposure scenarios, associations between illness and Enterococcus spp. levels were significantly higher among children compared to adolescents and adults. Respiratory symptoms were also associated with Enterococcus spp. exposures among young children at sites affected by human fecal sources, although small sample sizes resulted in imprecise estimates for these associations. Conclusion Under many exposure scenarios, children were at higher risk of illness associated with exposure to fecal contamination as measured by the indicator bacteria Enterococcus spp. The source of fecal contamination and the intensity of swimming exposure were also important factors affecting the association between Enterococcus spp. and swimming-associated illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The recent global climate agreement in Paris aims to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while fostering sustainable development and establishes an international trading mechanism to meet this goal. Currently, carbon offset program implementers are allowed to collect their own monitoring data to determine the number of carbon credits to be awarded. OBJECTIVES: We summarize reasons for mandating independent monitoring of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects. In support of our policy recommendations, we describe a case study of a program designed to earn carbon credits by distributing almost one million drinking water filters in rural Kenya to avert the use of fuel for boiling water. We compare results from an assessment conducted by our research team in the program area among households with pregnant women or caregivers in rural villages with low piped water access with the reported program monitoring data and discuss the implications. DISCUSSION: Our assessment in Kenya found lower levels of household water filter usage than the internal program monitoring reported estimates used to determine carbon credits; we found 19% (n = 4,041) of households reported filter usage 2-3 years after filter distribution compared to the program stated usage rate of 81% (n = 14,988) 2.7 years after filter distribution. Although carbon financing could be a financially sustainable approach to scale up water treatment and improve health in low-income settings, these results suggest program effectiveness will remain uncertain in the absence of requiring monitoring data be collected by third-party organizations. CONCLUSION: Independent monitoring should be a key requirement for carbon credit verification in future international carbon trading mechanisms to ensure programs achieve benefits in line with sustainable development goals. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP342, Introduction The recent Paris Agreement, which was signed by nearly 200 nations, aims to prevent global warming from exceeding 2°C above pre-industrial levels (UNFCCC 2015). The agreement acknowledges global disparities [...]

Background Intermittent delivery of piped water can lead to waterborne illness through contamination in the pipelines or during household storage, use of unsafe water sources during intermittencies, and limited water availability for hygiene. We assessed the association between continuous versus intermittent water supply and waterborne diseases, child mortality, and weight for age in Hubli-Dharwad, India. Methods and Findings We conducted a matched cohort study with multivariate matching to identify intermittent and continuous supply areas with comparable characteristics in Hubli-Dharwad. We followed 3,922 households in 16 neighborhoods with children Continuous supply had no significant overall association with diarrhea (prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83-1.04, p = 0.19), bloody diarrhea (PR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.60-1.01, p = 0.06), or weight-for-age z-scores (Δz = 0.01,95% CI: -0.07-0.09, p = 0.79) in children Conclusions Continuous water supply had no significant overall association with diarrheal disease or ponderal growth in children, Introduction The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) defines piped water as the highest category for water access. However, though widely considered the gold standard, the presence [...]

We propose a method for summarizing the strength of association between a set of variables and a multivariate outcome. Classical summary measures are appropriate when linear relationships exist between covariates and outcomes, while our approach provides an alternative that is useful in situations where complex relationships may be present. We utilize machine learning to detect nonlinear relationships and covariate interactions and propose a measure of association that captures these relationships. A hypothesis test about the proposed associative measure can be used to test the strong null hypothesis of no association between a set of variables and a multivariate outcome. Simulations demonstrate that this hypothesis test has greater power than existing methods against alternatives where covariates have nonlinear relationships with outcomes. We additionally propose measures of variable importance for groups of variables, which summarize each groups' association with the outcome. We demonstrate our methodology using data from a birth cohort study on childhood health and nutrition in the Philippines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor sanitation is thought to be a major cause of enteric infections among young children. However, there are no previously published randomized trials to measure the health impacts of large-scale sanitation programs. India's Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) is one such program that seeks to end the practice of open defecation by changing social norms and behaviors, and providing technical support and financial subsidies. The objective of this study was to measure the effect of the TSC implemented with capacity building support from the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program in Madhya Pradesh on availability of individual household latrines (IHLs), defecation behaviors, and child health (diarrhea, highly credible gastrointestinal illness [HCGI], parasitic infections, anemia, growth). Methodsand Findings:We conducted a cluster-randomized, controlled trial in 80 rural villages. Field staff collected baseline measures of sanitation conditions, behaviors, and child health (May-July 2009), and revisited households 21 months later (February-April 2011) after the program was delivered. The study enrolled a random sample of 5,209 children < 5 years old from 3,039 households that had at least one child Conclusions: The intervention led to modest increases in availability of IHLs and even more modest reductions in open defecation. These improvements were insufficient to improve child health outcomes (diarrhea, HCGI, parasite infection, anemia, growth). The results underscore the difficulty of achieving adequately large improvements in sanitation levels to deliver expected health benefits within large-scale rural sanitation programs. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrails.gov NCT01465204 Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary., Introduction The practice of open defecation is thought to be a major cause of the persistent worldwide burden of diarrhea and enteric parasite infection among children < 5 years old [...]

BACKGROUND: Inadequate access to safe drinking water remains a global health problem, particularly in rural areas. Boiling is the most commonly used form of point-of-use household water treatment (HWT) globally, although the use of bottled water in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is increasing rapidly. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the regional and seasonal prevalence of HWT practices (including bottled water use) in low-income rural areas in two Chinese provinces, evaluated the microbiological safety of drinking water and associated health outcomes, and estimated the air pollution burden associated with the use of solid fuels for boiling. METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional surveys and collected drinking water samples from 1,033 rural households in Guangxi and Henan provinces. Temperature sensors affixed to pots and electric kettles were used to corroborate self-reported boiling frequencies and durations, which were used to model household air pollution (HAP) in terms of estimated particulate matter ≤2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) concentrations. RESULTS: Based on summer data collection in both provinces, after controlling for covariates, boiling with electric kettles was associated with the largest log reduction in thermotolerant coliforms (TTCs) (-0.66log10 TTC most probable number/100mL), followed by boiling with pots (-0.58), and bottled water use (-0.39); all were statistically significant (p<0.001). Boiling with electric kettles was associated with a reduced risk of TTC contamination [risk ratio (RR)=0.25, p<0.001] and reported diarrhea (RR=0.80, p=0.672). TTCs were detected in 51% (p=136) of bottled water samples. For households boiling with biomass, modeled PM2.5 concentrations averaged 79 µg/m³ (standard deviation=21). DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that where boiling is already common and electricity access is widespread, the promotion of electricity-based boiling may represent a pragmatic stop-gap means of expanding safe water access until centralized, or decentralized, treated drinking water is available; displacing biomass use for water boiling could also reduce HAP concentrations and exposures. Our results also highlight the risks of increasing bottled water use in rural areas, and its potential to displace other sources of safe drinking water, which could in turn hamper efforts in China and other LMICs toward universal and affordable safe water access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The effects of weather on diarrhea could influence the health impacts of climate change. Children have the highest diarrhea incidence, especially in India, where many lack safe water and sanitation. OBJECTIVES: In a prospective cohort of 1,284 children under 5 y of age from 900 households across 25 villages in rural Tamil Nadu, India, we examined whether high temperature and heavy rainfall was associated with increased all-cause diarrhea and water contamination. METHODS: Seven-day prevalence of diarrhea was assessed monthly for up to 12 visits from January 2008 to April 2009, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) presence in drinking water, a fecal contamination indicator, was tested in a subset of households. We estimated associations between temperature and rainfall exposures and diarrhea and H2S using binomial regressions, adjusting for potential confounders, random effects for village, and autoregressive-1 error terms for study week. RESULTS: There were 259 cases of diarrhea. The prevalence of diarrhea during the 7 d before visits was 2.95 times higher (95% CI: 1.99, 4.39) when mean temperature in the week before the 7-d recall was in the hottest versus the coolest quartile of weekly mean temperature during 1 December 2007 to 15 April 2009. Diarrhea prevalence was 1.50 times higher when the 3 weeks before the diarrhea recall period included ≥1 d (vs. 0 d) with rainfall of >16:82 mm (95% CI: 1.12, 2.02), and 2.60 times higher (95% CI: 1.55, 4.36) for heavy rain weeks following a 60-d dry period. The H2S prevalence in household water was not associated with heavy rain prior to sample collection. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that, in rural Tamil Nadu, heavy rainfall may wash pathogens that accumulate during dry weather into child contact. Higher temperatures were positively associated with diarrhea 1-3 weeks later. Our findings suggest that diarrhea morbidity could worsen under climate change without interventions to reduce enteric pathogen transmission through multiple pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainstorms increase levels of fecal indicator bacteria in urban coastal waters, but it is unknown whether exposure to seawater after rainstorms increases rates of acute illness. Our objective was to provide the first estimates of rates of acute illness after seawater exposure during both dry- and wet-weather periods and to determine the relationship between levels of indicator bacteria and illness among surfers, a population with a high potential for exposure after rain. We enrolled 654 surfers in San Diego, California, and followed them longitudinally during the 2013--2014 and 2014--2015 winters (33,377 days of observation, 10,081 surf sessions). We measured daily surf activities and illness symptoms (gastrointestinal illness, sinus infections, ear infections, infected wounds). Compared with no exposure, exposure to seawater during dry weather increased incidence rates of all outcomes (e.g., for earache or infection, adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.86, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.27, 2.71; for infected wounds, IRR = 3.04, 95% CI: 1.54, 5.98); exposure during wet weather further increased rates (e.g., for earache or infection, IRR = 3.28, 95% CI: 1.95, 5.51; for infected wounds, IRR = 4.96, 95% CI: 2.18, 11.29). Fecal indicator bacteria measured in seawater (Enterococcus species, fecal coliforms, total coliforms) were strongly associated with incident illness only during wet weather. Urban coastal seawater exposure increases the incidence rates of many acute illnesses among surfers, with higher incidence rates after rainstorms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coliphages have been proposed as indicators of fecal contamination in recreational waters because they better mimic the persistence of pathogenic viruses in the environment and wastewater treatment than fecal indicator bacteria. We estimated the association between coliphages and gastrointestinal illness and compared it with the association with culturable enterococci.Methods: We pooled data from six prospective cohort studies that enrolled coastal beachgoers in California, Alabama, and Rhode Island. Water samples were collected and gastrointestinal illness within 10 days of the beach visit was recorded. Samples were tested for enterococci and male-specific and somatic coliphages. We estimated cumulative incidence ratios (CIR) for the association between swimming in water with detectable coliphage and gastrointestinal illness when human fecal pollution was likely present, not likely present, and under all conditions combined. The reference group was unexposed swimmers. We defined continuous and threshold-based exposures (coliphage present/absent, enterococci >35 vs. ≤35 CFU/100 ml).Results: Under all conditions combined, there was no association between gastrointestinal illness and swimming in water with detectable coliphage or enterococci. When human fecal pollution was likely present, coliphage and enterococci were associated with increased gastrointestinal illness, and there was an association between male-specific coliphage level and illness that was somewhat stronger than the association between enterococci and illness. There were no substantial differences between male-specific and somatic coliphage.Conclusions: Somatic coliphage and enterococci had similar associations with gastrointestinal illness; there was some evidence that male-specific coliphage had a stronger association with illness than enterococci in marine waters with human fecal contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many interventions delivered to improve health may benefit not only direct recipients but also people in close physical or social proximity. Our objective was to review all published literature about the spillover effects of interventions on health outcomes in low-middle income countries and to identify methods used in estimating these effects.Methods: We searched 19 electronic databases for articles published before 2014 and hand-searched titles from 2010 to 2013 in five relevant journals. We adapted the Cochrane Collaboration's quality grading tool for spillover estimation and rated the quality of evidence.Results: A total of 54 studies met inclusion criteria. We found a wide range of terminology used to describe spillovers, a lack of standardization among spillover methods and poor reporting of spillovers in many studies. We identified three primary mechanisms of spillovers: reduced disease transmission, social proximity and substitution of resources within households. We found the strongest evidence for spillovers through reduced disease transmission, particularly vaccines and mass drug administration. In general, the proportion of a population receiving an intervention was associated with improved health. Most studies were of moderate or low quality. We found evidence of publication bias for certain spillover estimates but not for total or direct effects. To facilitate improved reporting and standardization in future studies, we developed a reporting checklist adapted from the CONSORT framework specific to reporting spillover effects.Conclusions: We found the strongest evidence for spillovers from vaccines and mass drug administration to control infectious disease. There was little high quality evidence of spillovers for other interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To evaluate whether the quality of implementation of a water, sanitation, and hygiene program called SHEWA-B and delivered by UNICEF to 20 million people in rural Bangladesh was associated with health behaviors and sanitation infrastructure access. Methods. We surveyed 33 027 households targeted by SHEWA-B and 1110 SHEWA-B hygiene promoters in 2011 and 2012. We developed an implementation quality index and compared the probability of health behaviors and sanitation infrastructure access in counterfactual scenarios over the range of implementation quality. Results. Forty-seven percent of households (n = 14 622) had met a SHEWA-B hygiene promoter, and 47% of hygiene promoters (n = 527) could recall all key program messages. The frequency of hygiene promoter visits was not associated with improved outcomes. Higher implementation quality was not associated with better health behaviors or infrastructure access. Outcomes differed by only 1% to 3% in scenarios in which all clusters received low versus high implementation quality. Conclusions. SHEWA-B did not meet UNICEF's ideal implementation quality in any area. Improved implementation quality would have resulted in marginal changes in health behaviors or infrastructure access. This suggests that SHEWA-B's design was suboptimal for improving these outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomedical laboratory experiments routinely use negative controls to identify possible sources of bias, but epidemiologic studies have infrequently used this type of control in their design or measurement approach. Recently, epidemiologists proposed the routine use of negative controls in observational studies and defined the structure of negative controls to detect bias due to unmeasured confounding. We extend this previous study and define the structure of negative controls to detect selection bias and measurement bias in both observational studies and randomized trials. We illustrate the strengths and limitations of negative controls in this context using examples from the epidemiologic literature. Given their demonstrated utility and broad generalizability, the routine use of prespecified negative controls will strengthen the evidence from epidemiologic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]