Association Between Child Stunting and Handwashing facility with Spatial and Stratified Analysis Among Under Five based on Nationally Representative Health and Demographic Survey

Association Between Child Stunting and Handwashing facility with Spatial and Stratified Analysis Among Under Five based on Nationally Representative Health and Demographic Survey | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Association Between Child Stunting and Handwashing facility with Spatial and Stratified Analysis Among Under Five based on Nationally Representative Health and Demographic Survey MD Salek Miah, Mohammad Ohid Ullah This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7114856/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Objective This study examines the association between household handwashing facilities and stunting among children under five, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic and household-level confounders, with disparities between the rural and urban. Design, settings, and participants We contrasted information on 4,420 children under five years old from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2022. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for stunting with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Outcome measures Children whose height-for-age (HAZ) was up to -2 standard deviations (SD) less than the median were considered stunted. And the study applied stepwise selection based multiple binary logistic regression model. Results Stunting prevalence was 22.96%. 50.20% of households had improved handwashing facilities, 38.44% had basic facilities, and 11.36% had no facilities. Children from households with basic handwashing facilities were at lower risk of stunting (AOR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.54–0.93, p < 0.05) compared to those without a facility. This effect was even more significant in the rural setting (AOR = 0.69, p < 0.05). Although the sophisticated facilities unveiled a crude increased risk (OR = 1.28, p 0.05), suggesting confounding effects. Conclusion The study findings highlight the need for handwashing facilities alongside maternal education and household poverty alleviation strategies to mitigate child stunting. Stunting Handwashing Children multivariable logistic regression Spatial Significant Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Tables 1 to 3 are available in the Supplementary Files section. Supplementary Files TablesStuntingHandwashing.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7114856","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":485243559,"identity":"fff809db-0fde-4990-a37d-45b59bc17914","order_by":0,"name":"MD Salek 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Survey\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Stunting, Handwashing, Children, multivariable logistic regression, Spatial, Significant","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7114856/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7114856/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObjective\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nThis study examines the association between household handwashing facilities and stunting among children under five, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic and household-level confounders, with disparities between the rural and urban.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDesign, settings, and participants\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe contrasted information on 4,420 children under five years old from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2022. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for stunting with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOutcome measures\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChildren whose height-for-age (HAZ) was up to -2 standard deviations (SD) less than the median were considered stunted. And the study applied stepwise selection based multiple binary logistic regression model.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nStunting prevalence was 22.96%. 50.20% of households had improved handwashing facilities, 38.44% had basic facilities, and 11.36% had no facilities. Children from households with basic \u0026nbsp;handwashing facilities were at lower risk of stunting (AOR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.54–0.93, p \u0026lt; 0.05) compared to those without a facility. This effect was even more significant in the rural setting \u0026nbsp;(AOR = 0.69, p \u0026lt; 0.05). Although the sophisticated facilities unveiled a crude increased risk (OR = 1.28, p \u0026lt; 0.05), the adjusted model did not show any association (AOR = 0.86, p \u0026gt; 0.05), suggesting confounding effects.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nThe study findings highlight the need for handwashing facilities alongside maternal education and household poverty alleviation strategies to mitigate child stunting.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Association Between Child Stunting and Handwashing facility with Spatial and Stratified Analysis Among Under Five based on Nationally Representative Health and Demographic Survey","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-07-28 09:50:16","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7114856/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f0c169ae-16b1-456c-be59-c53b2f5b61ed","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 28th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-08-23T09:38:50+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-07-28 09:50:16","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7114856","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7114856","identity":"rs-7114856","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}