Handwashing station in Nepal: Role of wealth status in establishing a handwashing station at home.

Abstract

Handwashing is effective at preventing several infectious diseases. The study aims to find out the role of wealth status in establishing handwashing stations in the households of Nepal. This study used secondary data from Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2016 to assess the association between households' wealth status to handwashing stations. The findings displayed significant association between age of the household head, residence place, ecological zone, province, wealth status, having of mosquito net, having a radio, and TV at respondents household to fixed handwashing stations at their households at p=<0.001 level. Wealth status has significant effect on fixed handwashing stations adjusted odds ratio (aOR) =12.699; 95% confidence interval (CI) =10.120-15.935, p=<0.001, in the households. The households with poorest wealth status (aOR=9.718; 95% CI=7.387-12.785, p=<0.001), mountain ecological zone (aOR=1.325, 95% CI=1.098-1.599, p=<0.01), Madhesh province (aOR=2.967, 95% CI= 2.405-3.658, p=<0.001), were significant predictors for not having fixed handwashing stations even after inclusion of socio-covariates. Correspondingly, presence of mosquito net (aOR=.795; 95% CI=.692-.913, p=<0.01), presence of a radio (aOR=.758; 95% CI=.671-.857, p=<0.001), and presence of a TV (aOR=.762; 95% CI=.667-.871, p=<0.001) had significant effect on fixed handwashing stations at their households even after inclusion of socio-covariates. The study found households with the poorest wealth quintiles, mountain ecological zone, Madhesh, and Karnali province had low fixed handwashing stations. The study suggests more leading interventions to improve public health in this region.