The Effect of Improved Sanitation on Child Health in Ghana

Abstract

Adequate sanitation is an important component for the development of any country. It is a basic necessity required by every human being the world over to live a decent and dignified life. But almost a third of all people worldwide do not have access to this basic amenity the majority of whom can be found in Sub-Saharan Africa. This has contributed immensely to diarrhoeal morbidity and consequent mortality among people especially children under-5. Though there are studies on the effect of sanitation on under-5 morbidity due to diarrhoea in Ghana, most of these are case-control studies. Few studies have made use of population based data such as the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey for this purpose. The current study fills this gap by investigating whether there is a relationship between improved sanitation and under-5 morbidity due to diarrhoea using data from the 5th round of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. A logit model is employed. The result showed a negative relationship between access to improved sanitation and under-5 morbidity due to diarrhoea. A strong and significant association was also found between under-5 morbidity due to diarrhoea and improved drinking water source, maternal education, household wealth, child’s birth-weight, and age and breastfeeding status of the child. The study therefore recommends that policy makers should endeavour to enforce laws on the provision and use of safe sanitation by households. Furthermore, policy on girl-child education should be enforced to the letter and better still ensure that girls are well enrolled at the tertiary level. In addition, measures should be implemented to ensure the provision of safe drinking water to the entire population.