Household Waste Disposal: Knowledge, Perception, Practices, and Relationship with Diarrhea Frequency in Laputta Township in Myanmar

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out in Yay Twin Seik village tract, Laputta Township in Myanmar in March, 2011. The main purposes of this study were to identify the diarrhea occurrence and to identify association of diarrhea risk with demographic and household characteristics, level of knowledge and perception about household waste disposal and practices on household waste disposal in Laputta Township. This study was conducted with 389 samples by using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. There were 339 out of 389 households who had no history of diarrhea within last one month from self report while the rests, 12.9% had at least one case of diarrhea within last one month. Among respondents, 78.1% had high level of knowledge while 21.1% had moderate level of knowledge. For perception towards household waste disposal, 50.4% of respondents had high-level perception and 48.1% had moderate level of perception. Practice on household waste disposal differed significantly with drinking water source (<0.001), number of trash bin (p=0.032), trash bins with wide lids (p=0.01), emptying of trash bins (p=0.008), kitchen waste (p=0.017) and perception towards household waste disposal (<0.001). Indoor latrine (OR=2.38; 95% CI: 1.02-5.49) and number of children under 5 (OR=2.09; 95% CI: 1.08-4.04) are risk for diarrhea while trash bins with narrow lids (OR=0.30, 95% CI: 0.16-0.59) is protective against diarrhea. Study findings can serve to guide further research in this area, and may be of value in making policy to reduce diarrhea risk.