Factors associated with safe child feces disposal practices in Ethiopia: evidence from demographic and health survey

Of the total 11, 654 households, 11,126 households responded to the outcome variable
question in this study, which made the response rate 95.5 %. Among mothers 4.72 %
reported their child used latrine for defecation while 27.84 % of children’s stools
were put/rinsed into toilet/latrine. However, most children’s stools (42.01 %) were
left in the open/not disposed of and 14.08 % of the children’s stools thrown into
garbage. Small proportion (1.11 %) of children’s stools were buried (Table 1).

Table 1. Weighted prevalence of child feces disposal practice in Ethiopia, DHS 2011

The prevalence of safe child feces disposal was found to be 33.68 % (95 % CI: 32.82-34.55).
The highest prevalence of safe child feces disposal was found in Addis Ababa 74.01 %
(95 % CI: 67.97-79.89) followed by South Nation, Nationalities and People regional
state 47.77 % (95 % CI: 45.76-49.76). The lowest prevalence of safe child feces disposal
was found in Gambella region 22.73 % (95 % CI: 11.22-38.83) followed by Amhara region
23.49 %(95 % CI: 21.88-25.17). The prevalence of safe child feces disposal was 29.81 %
(95 % CI: 28.92-30.72) among rural residents. The prevalence of safe child feces disposal
was 17.56 % (95 % CI: 16.14-19.05) among poorest wealth quintile households while
it was 61.03 % (95 % CI: 58.69-63.35) among the richest wealth quintile households.
Among those mothers who did not attended any formal education, the prevalence of safe
child feces disposal was 28.34 % (95 % CI: 27.36-29.34) while it was 78.14 % (95 %
CI: 70.86-83.94) among mothers who had attended higher education (Table 2).

Table 2. Prevalence of safe child feces disposal by background characteristics in Ethiopia:
From the EDHS 2011

Factors associated with safe child feces disposal practices

In binary logistic regression analysis, from socio-demographic and economic variables:
place of residence, wealth index, mother and partner education status, marital status,
number of under five years old children, child age and religion were factors associated
with safe child feces disposal practices. Listening to radio, watching television
and reading newspaper at least once a week, being visited by family planning health
workers in the past one year, and visited health institutions in the past one year
were also significantly associated with safe child feces disposal practices. Water
supply (piped water supply) and an improved latrine had a statistically significant
association with safe child feces disposal practices in binary logistic regression
model (Table 3).

Table 3. Regression analysis of factors associated with safe child feces disposal in Ethiopia,
DHS 2011

Variables: Listening to radio, reading newspaper, watching television, being visited
by family planning worker in the last 12 months, visited health institutions in the
last one year were excluded from the final multivariable logistic regression model
because of collinearity. In multivariable logistic regression analysis place of residence,
wealth index, mother’s education, number of under five years old children, child age
and improved latrine were significantly associated with safe child feces disposal
practices.

The odds of practicing safe child feces disposal were (AOR?=?1.25, 95 % CI: 1.01-1.55)
times higher among urban residents as compared to rural residents. Households found
in the poorer, middle, richer and richest wealth quintile had (AOR?=?2.22, 95 % CI:
1.70-2.89), (AOR?=?2.94, 95 % CI: 2.27-3.81), (AOR?=?4.20, 95 % CI: 3.42-5.72) and
(AOR?=?8.06, 95 % CI: 5.91-10.99) times higher odds to practice safe child feces disposal
respectively as compared to households from the poorest wealth quintile.

Those mothers/caregivers whose child age was in the range of 12–23, 24–35, 36–47,
and 48–59 months had (AOR?=?1.66, 95 % CI: 1.37-2.04), (AOR?=?1.64, 95 % CI: 1.35-2.00),
(AOR?=?1.60, 95 % CI: 1.32-1.94), (AOR?=?2.21, 95 % CI: 1.82-2.68) times higher odds
of practicing safe child feces disposal respectively as compared to those mothers/caregivers
who had child with age less than 12 months.

The odds of practicing safe child feces disposal among households who had one under
five years old child, two and three under five years old children were (AOR?=?3.11,
95 % CI: 1.87-5.19), (AOR?=?2.55, 95 % CI: 1.53-4.24) and (AOR?=?1.92, 95 % CI: 1.13-3.24)
times higher than households who had four and above children respectively. Mothers/caregivers
with primary, secondary and higher education level had (AOR?=?1.29, 95%CI: 1.10-1.50),
(AOR?=?1. 64, 95 % CI: 1.12-2.41) and (AOR?=?2.16, 95 % CI: 1.25-3.72) times higher
odds to practice safe child feces disposal respectively than those mothers/caregivers
with no education. Those mothers/caregivers who were from households with an improved
latrine had (AOR?=?1.92, 95 % CI: 1.56-2.36) times higher odds to practice safe child
feces disposal than those who had unimproved latrine (Table 3).