Determinants of the prevalence of diarrhoea in adolescents attending school: A case study of an Indian village school
Shyama V. Ramani, Timothée Frühauf, Arijita Dutta & Huub Meijers
#2012-059
In developing countries, including India, diarrhoea is a leading killer
throughout the age pyramid. However, most of the medical literature on
the determinants of diarrhoea focuses only on young children or the
elderly, with health policy mainly targeting the former. Thus, the
present article attempts to contribute to a better understanding of the
determinants of diarrhoea in adolescents - the understudied population.
The paper develops a model using the medical literature, refines it to
fit an Indian village context and tests the hypotheses identified
through administering a questionnaire to 114 adolescents in an Indian
village school. Results confirm the well known importance of household
sanitation. In addition, the contribution of the present study is to
assert that access to school toilets and usage of school toilets are
also crucial. Furthermore, usage of toilets at school varies as a
function of gender and the existence of a toilet in the student's
household. Finally, the installation of toilets in schools is not
enough, sustainable financial models must be found to maintain toilets
and induce students to use them.
Key words: diarrhoea, adolescents, India, sanitation, school
JEL classification: I15, I25, O29