Evaluating health impact : water supply, sanitation, and hygiene education

It is generally agreed that improvements in water supply and sanitation have direct beneficial effects on community health. This is especially relevant in developing countries where infant mortality and morbidity rates due to waterborne and water-related diseases are extremely high. However,  for a number of reasons, the connection between clean water and adequate sanitation facilities, and improvements in health status has been difficult to establish. In this period of limited resources, water supply, sanitation, and related hygiene education programs must compete with other public health programs for limited resources. It is therefore important that relevant information be made available on the impact that water supply and sanitation programs have on health so that priorities can be assigned and appropriate decisions made. This monograph, sponsored jointly by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), summarizes the results of a workshop, hosted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, held in Bangladesh, November 1983, which addressed the conditions under which health impact evaluations should be undertaken, indicators for measuring health impact, study designs which can be used, and, how results can be interpreted. [author's/publisher's abstract]