Skip to main content
Download PDF

Equity in access to safely managed sanitation and prevalence of diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh: a national and sub-national analysis

BMC Infectious Diseases volume 22, Article number: 871 (2022) Cite this article

Abstract

Background

In Bangladesh, safely managed sanitation (SMS) coverage is low, and diarrheal disease is a significant health problem. This study estimated the inequality in access to SMS facilities at the national and sub-national levels and assessed the prevalence of diarrheal diseases in connection with these improved facilities.

Methods

Data were extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, conducted during 2017–2018. SMS was defined as using an improved sanitation facility, which designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact and include the use of a flush toilet connected to piped sewer system, septic tank, ventilated improved pit latrine, pit latrine with a slab, and composting toilet. The slope index of inequality (SII) and multi-level regression models were used for inequality and risk factors of SMS respectively.

Results

The national coverage of SMS was 44.0% (45.3% and 43.5% in urban and rural areas, respectively). At the sub-national level, the lowest and highest coverage of SMS was observed in Mymensingh (32.9%) and Chittagong (54.1%) divisions, respectively. The national level SII indicated that wealthy households had access to higher SMS by 60.8 percentage points than poor households. Additionally, greater inequality was observed in rural areas, which was 71.9 percentage points higher in the richest households than in the poorest households. The coverage gap between the rich and poor was highest in the Sylhet division (85.3 percentage points higher in rich than in poor) and lowest in Dhaka (34.9 percentage points). Old and highly educated household heads and richest households had better access to higher levels of adequate sanitation. After adjusting for confounding variables, the prevalence of diarrheal disease was 14.0% lower in the SMS user group than in their counterparts.

Conclusion

Substantial inequalities in access to SMS exist at both national and sub-national levels of Bangladesh, with the prevalence of diarrhea being lower among SMS users. These findings may help to prioritize resources for reducing inequality and expanding the coverage of improved sanitation in Bangladesh.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Universal and equitable access to safely managed sanitation (SMS) is vital for ensuring health and well-being of all. Although in 2020, 54.0% of the world population (4.2 billion people) used a SMS service, more than 1.7 billion people still lacked basic sanitation services, i.e., private toilets or latrines [1]. Scarcity of improved sanitation poses both health and economic threats as it increases the risk of various diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, schistosomiasis, and some cancers through exposure to carcinogens [2]. Annually, inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene together cause around 60.0% of the total diarrheal deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), among which 432,000 are attributed to poor sanitation only [1]. In addition, near about 480,000 children die globally each year due to diarrhea from waterborne diseases [3], all of which emphasize how important SMS services are for healthy living and socioeconomic development.

Even though some parts of the world have made remarkable progress in increasing access to basic sanitation services, serious inequalities remain in several regions [4]. For instance, coverage of SMS is quite low in African and South Asian countries [4], particularly in Bangladesh [5], though it is one of the top performing countries in the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) era. According to the World Bank reports, Bangladesh successfully reduced open defecation from 34.0% in 1990 to just 1.0% of the national population in 2015, but the quality of sanitation and its link with human development remain a challenge [6, 7]. The rapid urbanization and population growth of the country could be an associated factor for the proliferation of informal settlements and thereby this environmental degradation.

Several studies have been conducted in Bangladesh on sanitation [8,9,10,11] and its benefits in rural Bangladesh [12,13,14]; however, these studies are limited to only describing the household trends in access to improved sanitation facilities. Furthermore, little research is available on the inequality in access to improved sanitation facilities at the national and sub-national levels in Bangladesh using demographic and socioeconomic measures. A deeper understanding of this issue is critical for the Bangladeshi policymakers to optimize resource allocation and disease control as well as prioritize the programs that are focused on preventing epidemics. Also, if these inequalities are not addressed adequately and promptly, they could pose a threat to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 for sanitation by 2030. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the equity in access to SMS at national and sub-national levels in Bangladesh using the available data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2017–2018 [15]. This study aimed to: (1) estimate the inequalities in access to SMS facilities at the national and sub-national levels of Bangladesh, (2) determine the association of demographic and socioeconomic indicators with inequalities in access to Bangladeshi sanitation systems, and (3) assess the prevalence of diarrheal diseases in relation to SMS facilities in Bangladesh.

Study population

Bangladesh, with a population of nearly 149.8 million in 2011, is one of the most densely populated countries in the world (1015 people per sq km) [16]. The country has eight administrative divisions: south (Barishal), southeast (Chittagong), central (Dhaka), west (Khulna), mid-western corner (Rajshahi), central (Mymensingh), northwest (Rangpur), and east (Sylhet) [17]. These regions exhibit different geographical, demographic, environmental, gastronomic, and economic characteristics [18]. Other areas lag behind the socio-economic status of the southern part of Bangladesh [16, 19, 20]. Poverty, hunger, and other socio-economic indicators disproportionately impact people in the northwestern part of Bangladesh [16, 19, 20].

Data and methodology

Data for this study were extracted from the BDHS 2017–2018, a nationally representative cross-sectional study. This survey was conducted by the National Institute of Population Research and Training of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conducted between October 2017 and March 2018. It was based on a two-stage stratified sampling of households. In the first stage of sampling, a fixed number of primary sampling units (PSUs) were selected, with probability proportional to their size. In the second stage, households were selected within each primary sampling unit using equal probability systematic sampling. The BDHS is a representative probability sample of men and women based on a two-stage cluster sampling of households, stratified by rural and urban areas and eight administrative regions of the country. In the first stage of sampling, 675 PSUs were selected with a probability proportional to the PSU’s size. On an average, each PSU contained 120 households. In the second stage of sampling, 20,250 households were selected using a systematic random sampling method. Interviews were successfully completed in 19,584 households, of which 19,457 were eligible. The overall response rate was 99.4%. Figure 1 illustrates sample selection framework. The detailed research protocol, methods, and structured questionnaires are available on the DHS website [20].

Fig. 1
figure 1

Schematic presentation of sample size calculation

Full size image

Outcomes

The outcome variables of this study were SMS and diarrheal diseases. According to the sanitation ladders of the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) [21, 22], SMS was defined as use of improved facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or removed and treated offsite. Moreover, an improved sanitation facility is designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact and include the use of a flush toilet connected to piped sewer system, septic tank, ventilated improved pit latrine, pit latrine with a slab, and composting toilet. Conversely, an unimproved sanitation facility was defined as use of pit latrines without a slab or platform, hanging latrines or bucket latrines. According to the available BDHS data, improved sanitation facilities include flush or pour-flush to the piped sewer system, septic tank, or pit latrine, ventilated improved pit latrines, composting toilets, or pit latrines with slabs. Diarrhea was defined as the passage of three or more loose or liquid stools per day (or more frequent passage than is normal for the individual) [23] and the proportion of children under the age of five who had diarrhea in the 2 weeks preceding the survey were included.

Covariates

We used individual, household, and community-level characteristics to assess the prevalence of diarrheal diseases. The variables were the household head’s age (≤ 24 years, 25–34 years, and ≥ 35 years), sex (male or female), and education (no education, primary, secondary education, and higher education), household’s wealth quintile (poorest, poorer, middle, rich, and richest), area of residence (urban or rural), and region of residence (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet).

Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions were used to describe the participants’ characteristics. Two indices were used to summarize wealth-based inequalities in SMS coverage and the prevalence of diarrheal diseases: the slope index of inequality (SII) and the relative index of inequality (RII). Both indices were calculated using regression models that considered the whole population’s distribution of wealth. The SII expresses the absolute difference in coverage in percentage points and provides an idea of the actual efforts that will be needed to close the gap. By contrast, the RII measures the ratio of SMS coverage for poor and wealthy households at the national and sub-national levels and provides an idea about the degree of inequality. A multi-level logistic regression model was used to estimate the risk factors of SMS facilities, and Poisson regression was used to assess the prevalence of diarrheal diseases in connection sanitation variables. We used multi-level analysis because individuals were clustered within the same households, and households were clustered within communities in the BDHS data. The Stata MP (version 16.1) was used for all the statistical analyses. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. All analyses were adjusted for the probability weight. The probability weight is the invers probability of selection of each household into the study.

Ethical considerations

The BDHS 2017–2018 was conducted by National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT) and approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at the ICF and the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC).

Results

Background characteristics

The background characteristics of the study population are presented in Table 1. In a total sample of 19,457 households, most individuals (77.5%) were ≥ 35 years old, and the majority of the household heads were male (84.6%). Of the total respondents, 40.7% fell into the poor category and most of them lived in rural areas (63.5%). Moreover, 27.8% had no formal education, and the Dhaka region accommodated the highest number of respondents (15.0%).

Table 1 Background characteristics of the study population, Bangladesh, 2017–2018
Full size table

Access to safely managed sanitation

Table 2 presents the national and sub-national coverage of sanitation facilities in Bangladesh. The national coverage of SMS was 44.0% (95% CI 43.3–44.7), whereas it was 45.3% (95% CI 44.0–46.6) and 43.5% (95% CI 42.6–44.3) in urban and rural areas, respectively. Among the eight administrative divisions, the lowest coverage was observed in Mymensingh (32.9%) and the highest in the Chittagong division (54.1%). Access to basic sanitation facilities varied substantially across all divisions in Bangladesh, with a sanitation coverage rate of 47.8% (95% CI 44.9–50.8) in Barisal, 49.8% (95% CI 47.8–51.9) in Khulna, 40.7% (95% CI 38.8–42.5) in Rajshahi, 38.0% (95% CI 36.1–40.0) in Rangpur, and 44.8% (95% CI 41.9–47.7) in Sylhet. Figure 2 presents the residence-specific and quintile-specific coverage of safely managed sanitation at the national and sub-national levels in Bangladesh.

Table 2 Inequality in access to safely managed sanitation at national and sub-national levels, Bangladesh
Full size table
Fig. 2
figure 2

Residence-specific and wealth quintile-specific coverage of safely managed sanitation at national and sub national level, Bangladesh

Full size image

Greater inequalities in access to SMS facilities were observed at the national and sub-national levels (Table 2). The national level SII indicated that access to SMS in wealthy households was 60.8 percentage points higher than that of disadvantaged households. Additionally, greater wealth inequalities were observed at the sub-national level. At the sub-national level, inequality was higher in the Sylhet division and lower in the Dhaka division, which was 85.3 and 34.9 percentage points, respectively, greater in the richest household than in the disadvantaged households. Furthermore, greater inequality was observed in rural areas, which was 71.9 percentage points higher in the richest households than in the poorest households.

Risk factors associated with access to improved sanitation facilities

Table 3 presents the results of the multi-level logistic regression models for SMS. Higher age of the household heads was associated with higher odds of having access to improved sanitation facilities, by nearly 2.5-times in the age group ≥ 35 years (OR 2.36, 95% CI 1.82–3.07), followed by 25–34 years (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.10–1.92). Gender of the household heads was associated with SMS, with female household heads having higher odds (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.02–1.29) compared to male household heads. Similarly, household education was also an associated factor for improved sanitation facilities, with greater by nearly 2.5 times was observed with household heads having a higher education (OR 2.18, 95% CI 1.81–2.62), secondary education (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.13–1.43), and primary education (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.06–1.30) compared to those without education. The household wealth quintile displayed a significant association between having access to SMS, with higher odds in the richest quintile, which was more than 50-fold compared to the poorest quintile. The rural households had 2.55 times (95% CI 2.11–3.08) higher odds of having access to SMS compared to the urban households. Households from Mymensingh (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.15–2.17), Sylhet (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.35–2.70), Rajshahi (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.48–2.87), Chittagong (OR 2.44, 95% CI 1.72–3.45), Khulna (OR 2.47, 95% CI 1.79–3.41), and Rangpur (OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.96–3.76) had higher odds of having access to SMS than those from Dhaka.

Table 3 Risk factors of safely managed sanitation: a multi-level analysis
Full size table

Prevalence of diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh

Table 4 presents the results of the Poisson regression model of prevalence of diarrheal diseases among 8433 children in Bangladesh. The diarrheal disease prevalence was higher in unimproved sanitation facilities, which was 4.87 (4.30–5.52) and 4.49 (3.87–5.21) in improved sanitation facilities. The prevalence of diarrheal disease was 11.0% lower in SMS users than in unimproved sanitation users. After adjustment for confounding variables, the prevalence of diarrheal disease was almost the same (14.0%).

Table 4 Association between adequate sanitation and prevalence of diarrheal diseases among 8433 children in Bangladesh
Full size table

Discussion

Our study findings demonstrated that indicators with similar levels of overall coverage often have very different degrees of inequality. Additionally, older household heads, higher education, and richest socioeconomic status were potential factors for having better improved sanitation facilities. Socio-economic inequalities are greater in rural areas than in urban areas in Bangladesh. Concerning urban/rural disparities, access to improved sanitation is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas. The prevalence of diarrhea is lower in SMS users than in unimproved sanitation users.

Among the eight administrative divisions, the lowest sanitation coverage was observed in Mymensingh (32.9%), which is not unlikely as this division experiences river floods annually [24]. Water supply and sanitation conditions are seriously affected during floods, as they include multiple water-borne diseases [25]. This division also has the highest poverty level in Bangladesh [26], which is believed to have a strong impact on sanitation coverage. Poor people, particularly slum dwellers, suffer from inadequate basic infrastructure facilities, such as unimproved and unhygienic sanitation [27]. A substantial number of households have to share a few pit latrines in most slum areas [27]. Typically, approximately one-third of slum households use open holes [27].

In the present study, older household heads, higher education, and richest socioeconomic status were associated with SMS. These findings are consistent with those of previous studies in Bangladesh and other low-income countries [28]. Older and higher-educated household heads have better sanitation access, which could be because wisdom increases with age and experience [29] and education can foster wisdom [30]. They may also be attributed to the greater consciousness of their own health and hygiene. Richest households were found to have better access to improved sanitation facilities as rich people are more likely to afford them financially, and this supports the statement from another study that socioeconomic factors affect access to sanitation in LMICs, especially in rural areas [31].

In this study, the prevalence of diarrhea was 14.0% lower in SMS users than in unimproved sanitation users. This finding is consistent with that of a previous reports and a systematic review and meta-analysis [32, 33]. Wolf et al. reported that sanitation intervention reduced the prevalence of diarrhea by 25.0%, with evidence for greater reductions when high sanitation coverage was reached [33]. Waddington et al. reported that sanitation interventions reduced the prevalence of diarrhea by 37.0% [32]. Contrarily, the present finding is not consistent with a previous study from Bangladesh, which found that combined access to improved water and sanitation reduced the incidence of diarrhea; however, improved sanitation alone had no statistically significant impact on the incidence of childhood diarrhea [34]. However, the previous study was based on the BDHS conducted in 2007, including 8585 children [34]. The present study was based on 2017–2018 BDHS data and sanitation facilities, and diarrheal diseases may have substantially changed over the last several years. The present study with a large sample size suggests that improved sanitation facilities can lower the prevalence of diarrhea.

Strengths and limitations

The findings of this study should be interpreted in light of some limitations. One limitation is the potential for recall bias as the data are self-reported. The information of sanitation and diarrhoea are self-reported or mother reported, which could be prone to recall bias. However, the present findings are in the same direction of previous estimates and thus could not be ruled out as a possible explanation for the findings of this study. Another limitation is that the DHS was conducted in Bangladesh a few years ago. Equality in access to improved sanitation facilities and diarrheal diseases has substantially changed over the last few years [35]. However, our study provides the basis to strengthen the worldwide evidence on the importance of equality of coverage of sanitation facilities for the lives of all people, with specific attention to the poor. Sanitation systems are strongly linked to the overall health status of the people of Bangladesh, and they could reduce deaths and disease burden associated with sanitation and hygiene risk factors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the present study found substantial inequalities in access to improved sanitation at both national and sub-national levels of Bangladesh, with the prevalence of diarrhea being lower among SMS users. These findings may help policy makers to prioritize adequate resource allocation for reducing inequality and expanding the coverage of improved sanitation in Bangladesh.

Availability of data and materials

Data are available from a public open-access repository. The relevant data were obtained from the MEASURE DHS and are available from the Demographic Health Surveys Program at https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm. The title of the dataset is the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (Bangladesh 2017–2018).

Abbreviations

BDHS:

Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey

CI:

Confidence interval

OR:

Odds ratio

PSU:

Primary sampling unit

RII:

Relative index of inequality

SII:

Slope index of inequality

SDG:

Sustainable development goal

WASH:

Water, sanitation, and hygiene

References

  1. WHO. Sanitation. World Health Organization. 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation. Accessed on 17 Apr 2022.

  2. Hunter PR, MacDonald AM, Carter RC. Water supply and health. PLoS Med. 2010;7(11):e1000361.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. UNICEF. Diarrhoea 2019. United Nations Children's Fund. https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-health/diarrhoeal-disease/. Accessed 1 Nov 2020.

  4. Zhou X, Li Z, Zheng T, Yan Y, Li P, Odey EA, et al. Review of global sanitation development. Environ Int. 2018;120:246–61.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Escamilla V, Knappett PS, Yunus M, Streatfield P, Emch M. Influence of latrine proximity and type on tubewell water quality and diarrheal disease in Bangladesh. Ann Am Assoc Geogr. 2013;103(2):299–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. The World Bank: Bangladesh: improving water supply and sanitation. 2016. https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/10/07/bangladesh-improving-water-supply-and-sanitation. Accessed on 17 Apr 2022.

  7. The World Bank. World Bank helps Bangladesh ensure safe water and sanitation in rural areas. 2020. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/09/25/world-bank-helps-bangladesh-ensure-safe-water-and-sanitation-in-rural-areas. Accessed on 17 Apr 2022.

  8. Khan MMH, Krämer A, Khandoker A, Prüfer-Krämer L, Islam A. Trends in sociodemographic and health-related indicators in Bangladesh, 1993–2007: will inequities persist? Bull World Health Organ. 2011;89:583–93.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Kearns J. The role of chemical exposures in reducing the effectiveness of water–sanitation–hygiene interventions in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. WIREs Water. 2020;7(5):e1478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zohura F, Islam Bhuyian MS, Saxton RE, Parvin T, Monira S, Biswas SK, et al. Effect of a water, sanitation, and hygiene program on handwashing with soap among household members of diarrhea patients in health facilities in Bangladesh: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the CHoBI7 Mobile Health Program. Trop Med Int Health. 2020;25(8):1008–15.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Hsan K, Naher S, Griffiths MD, Shamol HH, Rahman MA. Factors associated with the practice of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) among the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. J Water Sanit Hyg Dev. 2019;9(4):794–800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. George CM, Monira S, Zohura F, Thomas ED, Hasan MT, Parvin T, et al. Effects of a water, sanitation, and hygiene mobile health program on diarrhea and child growth in Bangladesh: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the cholera hospital-based intervention for 7 days (CHoBI7) mobile health program. Clin Infect Dis. 2020;73:e2560–8.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Sarder A, Ashik M. Better WASH interventions impacted to increase school attendance in Bangladesh (January 21, 2019). https://ssrn.com/abstract=3319673.

  14. Begum MR, Al Banna MH, Akter S, Kundu S, Sayeed A, Hassan MN, et al. Effectiveness of WASH education to prevent diarrhea among children under five in a community of Patuakhali, Bangladesh. SN Compr Clin Med. 2020;2(8):1158–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Mitra and Associates. Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2017–18. Dhaka: Bangladesh National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT); 2020.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). Bangladesh population and housing census 2011. Dhaka: Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Cabinet Division. Bangladesh National Portal/Divisions 2021. https://bangladesh.gov.bd/site/view/division-list/List-of-Divisions. Accessed 15 Nov 2020.

  18. Rahman MS, Akter S, Abe SK, Islam MR, Mondal MNI, Rahman JS, et al. Awareness, treatment, and control of diabetes in Bangladesh: a nationwide population-based study. PLoS ONE. 2015;10(2): e0118365.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). Household income and expenditure survey 2010. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Mitra and Associates. Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2011. Dhaka: Bangladesh National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT); 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  21. United Nations: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply || Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP). 2021. https://www.unwater.org/publication_categories/whounicef-joint-monitoring-programme-for-water-supply-sanitation-hygiene-jmp/. Accessed on 19 Apr 2022.

  22. WHO, UNICEF. Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP): Monitoring/Sanitation. World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund. https://washdata.org/monitoring/sanitation. Accessed on 19 Apr 2022.

  23. WHO. Diarrhoea in the Western Pacific. World Health Organization. 2022. https://www.who.int/westernpacific/health-topics/diarrhoea. Accessed on 19 Apr 2022.

  24. Ruane AC, Major DC, Winston HY, Alam M, Hussain SG, Khan AS, et al. Multi-factor impact analysis of agricultural production in Bangladesh with climate change. Glob Environ Change. 2013;23(1):338–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Shimi AC, Parvin GA, Biswas C, Shaw R. Impact and adaptation to flood: A focus on water supply, sanitation and health problems of rural community in Bangladesh. Disaster Prev Manag. 2010;19(3):298–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Macroeconomic Wing. Finance Division MoF, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Poverty and Inequality in Bangladesh: Journey towards Progress (2014–2015). 2015.

  27. Roy B, Mohanta SC. Water supply and sanitation status of low income area in Mymensingh District. Int J Nat Soc Sci. 2017;4(3):43–8.

    Google Scholar 

  28. World Health Organization. Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2017: special focus on inequalities. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Li Z, Durgin FH. A comparison of two theories of perceived distance on the ground plane: the angular expansion hypothesis and the intrinsic bias hypothesis. i-Perception. 2012;3(5):368–83.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Yang S-y. Wisdom and learning from important and meaningful life experiences. J Adult Dev. 2014;21(3):129–46.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Gomez M, Perdiguero J, Sanz A. Socioeconomic factors affecting water access in rural areas of low and middle income countries. Water. 2019;11(2):202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Waddington H, Snilstveit B, White H, Fewtrell L. Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions to combat childhood diarrhoea in developing countries. New Delhi: The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie); 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Wolf J, Hunter PR, Freeman MC, Cumming O, Clasen T, Bartram J, et al. Impact of drinking water, sanitation and handwashing with soap on childhood diarrhoeal disease: updated meta-analysis and meta-regression. Trop Med Int Health. 2018;23(5):508–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Begum S, Ahmed M, Sen B. Do water and sanitation interventions reduce childhood diarrhoea? New evidence from Bangladesh. Bangladesh Dev Stud. 2011:1–30.

  35. Zheng Y, Hakim SA, Nahar Q, van Agthoven A, Flanagan SV. Sanitation coverage in Bangladesh since the millennium: consistency matters. J Water Sanit Hyg Dev. 2013;3(2):240–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We obtained the data used in this study from the MEASURE DHS Archive. The authors are grateful to the Measure DHS for providing permission to use the 2017–208 Bangladesh DHS data. We would also like to acknowledge Late Md. Abul Basher Mian’s contribution to this study for his valuable feedback and guidance.

Funding

This study received no funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Public Health Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Jahanara Akter, Fahima Hossain & Md Rifat Anam

  2. Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Jahanara Akter & Shahedur Rashid

  3. Sreepur Muktizodha Rahmat Ali Government College, Gazipur, Bangladesh

    Jahanara Akter

  4. Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University, Kunitachi, Japan

    Md. Rashedul Islam, Shamima Akter & Md. Mizanur Rahman

  5. Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Md. Rashedul Islam & Md. Ashraful Alam

  6. University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

    Papia Sultana

Authors
  1. Jahanara Akter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Md. Rashedul Islam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shamima Akter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Md. Mizanur Rahman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Fahima Hossain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Md Rifat Anam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Md. Ashraful Alam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Papia Sultana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Shahedur Rashid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

MRI and JA had full access to all the data in the study and took responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. MRI, MMR, and JA conceptualized the analysis plan for this study. MRI performed the statistical analyses. JA drafted the paper together with MRI, SA, MMR, and MRA. SA, FH, MAA, PS, and SR revised it critically for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Md. Rashedul Islam.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The BDHS 2017–2018 was approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at the ICF and the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC). Informed consent was obtained from each participant prior to their enrolment of DHS survey or, if the participants are under 18, from a parent and/or legal guardian. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Akter, J., Islam, M.R., Akter, S. et al. Equity in access to safely managed sanitation and prevalence of diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh: a national and sub-national analysis. BMC Infect Dis 22, 871 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07884-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07884-4

Keywords

BMC Infectious Diseases

ISSN: 1471-2334

Contact us