{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-post-query-tsx","path":"/research/open-defecation-and-childhood-stunting-in-india-an-ecological-analysis-of-new-data-from-112-districts/","result":{"pageContext":{"post":{"slug":"/research/open-defecation-and-childhood-stunting-in-india-an-ecological-analysis-of-new-data-from-112-districts/","title":"Open Defecation and Childhood Stunting in India: An Ecological Analysis of New Data from 112 Districts","date":"Sep 16, 2013","timeToRead":1,"description":"Poor sanitation remains a major public health concern linked to several important health outcomes; emerging evidence indicates a link to childhood stunting.","body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"title\": \"Open Defecation and Childhood Stunting in India: An Ecological Analysis of New Data from 112 Districts\",\n  \"date\": \"2013-09-16\",\n  \"template\": \"post\",\n  \"slug\": \"open-defecation-and-childhood-stunting-in-india-an-ecological-analysis-of-new-data-from-112-districts\",\n  \"postedLink\": \"https://riceinstitute.org/research/open-defecation-and-childhood-stunting-in-india-an-ecological-analysis-of-new-data-from-112-districts/\",\n  \"description\": \"Poor sanitation remains a major public health concern linked to several important health outcomes; emerging evidence indicates a link to childhood stunting.\",\n  \"tags\": \"Research, Sanitation\",\n  \"banner\": \"\"\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Authors: Dean Spears, Arabinda Ghosh, Oliver Cumming\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Published in: \", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"PloS one\")), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"https://github.com/riceinstitute/content/blob/release/research/spears-et-al-2013-open-defecation-and-childhood-stunting-an-ecological-analysis-of-new-data-from-112-districts.pdf\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Download Paper\")), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Abstract:\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Poor sanitation remains a major public health concern linked to several important health outcomes; emerging\\xA0evidence indicates a link to childhood stunting. In India over half of the population defecates in the open; the\\xA0prevalence of stunting remains very high. Recently published data on levels of stunting in 112 districts of India provide an opportunity to explore the relationship between levels of open defecation and stunting within this\\xA0population. \"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"We conducted an ecological regression analysis to assess the association between the prevalence of\\xA0open defecation and stunting after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Data from the 2011 HUNGaMA survey was used for the outcome of interest, stunting; data from the 2011 Indian Census for the same districts was\\xA0used for the exposure of interest, open defecation. After adjustment for various potential confounding factors \\u2013\\xA0including socio-economic status, maternal education and calorie availability \\u2013 a 10 percent increase in open defecation was associated with a 0.7 percentage point increase in both stunting and severe stunting. Differences in\\xA0open defecation can statistically account for 35 to 55 percent of the average difference in stunting between districts\\xA0identified as low-performing and high-performing in the HUNGaMA data. \"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"In addition, using a Monte Carlo simulation,\\xA0we explored the effect on statistical power of the common practice of dichotomizing continuous height data into\\xA0binary stunting indicators. Our simulation showed that dichotomization of height sacrifices statistical power,\\xA0suggesting that our estimate of the association between open defecation and stunting may be a lower bound. \"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Whilst\\xA0our analysis is ecological and therefore vulnerable to residual confounding, these findings use the most recently\\xA0collected large-scale data from India to add to a growing body of suggestive evidence for an effect of poor sanitation on human growth. New intervention studies, currently underway, may shed more light on this important issue\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","tags":[{"name":"Research","slug":"research"},{"name":" Sanitation","slug":"sanitation"}],"banner":null}}},"staticQueryHashes":["318001574","3787687951","3787687951"]}