A preliminary literature search retrieved more than 50 WASH in schools studies published from 2012 through March 2017. 19 of these were selected for the bibliography. Studies 1 and 5 discuss menstrual hygiene management and study 8 provides information on the life-cycle costs of WASH access in Kenyan schools.
Study 7 describes how children perform as “change agents” or hygiene teachers in Zambia. Other studies discuss health impacts and how WASH in schools affects attendance, gender parity, etc.
2017
1 – Reprod Health. 2017 Mar – Mapping the knowledge and understanding of menarche, menstrual hygiene and menstrual health among adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries.
LMIC must recognize that lack of preparation, knowledge and poor practices surrounding menstruation are key impediments not only to girls’ education, but also to self-confidence and personal development. In addition to investment in private latrines with clean water for girls in both schools and communities, countries must consider how to improve the provision of knowledge and understanding and how to better respond to the needs of adolescent girls.
2 – Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2017 Feb – Improving water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools in Indonesia: A cross-sectional assessment on sustaining infrastructural and behavioral interventions.
Intervention schools were more likely to have handwashing stations with soap and water. In multivariable analyses, schools with a toilet operation and maintenance fund were more likely to have functional toilets. Students who learn hygiene skills from their teachers were less likely to defecate openly, more likely to share hygiene knowledge with their parents, and more likely to wash their hands. Survey data were comparable with government data, suggesting that Indonesian government monitoring may be a reliable source of data to measure progress on the SDGs. This research generates important policy and practice findings for scaling up and sustaining WASH in schools and may help improve WASH in schools programs in other low-resource contexts.
3 – Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 Jan – Water Quality, Sanitation, and Hygiene Conditions in Schools and Households in Dolakha and Ramechhap Districts, Nepal: Results from A Cross-Sectional Survey.
The presence of domestic animals roaming inside schoolchildren’s homes was significantly associated with drinking water contamination. Our findings call for an improvement of WASH conditions at the unit of school, households, and communities.
4 – Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2017 Jan – The Role of Adherence on the Impact of a School-Based Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Intervention in Mali.
These results indicate that a comprehensive WASH intervention and a focus on increasing adherence may help maximize the health effects of school WASH programs, but that WASH alone might not be sufficient to decrease pupils’ absenteeism.
2016
5 – Glob Health Action. 2016 Dec – Menstrual hygiene management among adolescent schoolgirls in low- and middle-income countries: research priorities.
In this article, we highlight the current knowledge gaps in school-aged girls’ MHM research, and identify opportunities for addressing the dearth of hard evidence limiting the ability of governments, donors, and other agencies to appropriately target resources. We outline a series of research priorities and methodologies that were drawn from an expert panel to address global priorities for MHM in schools for the next 10 years.
6 – Epidemiology. 2016 Sep – Estimating the Effect of School Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Improvements on Pupil Health Outcomes.
Our instrumental variable point estimates sometimes suggested protective effects with increased water, sanitation, and hygiene intervention adherence, although many of the estimates were imprecise.
7 – Health Educ Res. 2016 Aug – ‘A child is also a teacher’: exploring the potential for children as change agents in the context of a school-based WASH intervention in rural Eastern Zambia.
We found that, in general, pupils were enthusiastic about engaging with parents-typically male heads of household-and were successful at constructing handwashing stations. Mothers reported high levels of trust in children to relay health information learned at school. Pupils were able to enact small changes to behavior, but not larger infrastructure changes, such as construction of latrines. Pupils are capable of communicating knowledge and behaviors to family members; however, discrete activities and guidance is required.
8 – Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 Jun – The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools.
Current expenditures on WASH, from school and external (NGO, government, parent) sources, averaged 1.83 USD per student per year. After reviewing current expenditures, estimated costs of operations and maintenance for bringing schools up to basic WASH standards, were calculated to be 3.03 USD per student per year. This includes recurrent costs, but not the cost of installing or setting up WASH infrastructure, which was 18,916 USD per school, for a school of 400 students (4.92 USD per student, per year). These findings demonstrate the need for increases in allocations to schools in Kenya, and stricter guidance on how money should be spent on WASH inputs to enable all schools to provide basic WASH for all students.
9 – Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2016 Jun 1 – The Impact of a School-Based Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Program on Absenteeism, Diarrhea, and Respiratory Infection: A Matched-Control Trial in Mali.
We found that a school-based WASH intervention can have a positive effect on reducing rates of illness, as well as absence due to diarrhea. However, we did not find evidence that these health impacts led to a reduction in overall absence. Higher absence rates are less likely attributable to the intervention than the result of an imbalance in unobserved confounders between study groups.
2015
10 – Parasit Vectors. 2015 Aug – Associations between school- and household-level water, sanitation and hygiene conditions and soil-transmitted helminth infection among Kenyan school children.
No trend of the relative importance of school versus household-level WASH emerged, though some factors, like water supply were more strongly related to lower infection, which suggests it is important in supporting other school practices, such as hand-washing and keeping school toilets clean.
11 – Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2015 May – Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Schools in Low Socio-Economic Regions in Nicaragua: A Cross-Sectional Survey.
WaSH coverage was significantly higher in urban than rural areas. Presence of drinking water infrastructure (43%) was lower than sanitation infrastructure (64%). Eighty-one percent of schools had no hand washing stations and 74% of schools lacked soap. Sanitation facilities were not in use at 28% of schools with sanitation infrastructure and 26% of schools with water infrastructure had non-functional systems. Only 8% of schools had budgets to purchase toilet-cleaning supplies and 75% obtained supplies from students’ families. This study generates transferable WaSH sector learnings and new insights from monitoring data. Results can be used by donors, service providers, and policy makers to better target resources in Nicaraguan schools.
2014
12 – Trop Med Int Health. 2014 Oct – Assessing the impact of a school-based latrine cleaning and handwashing program on pupil absence in Nyanza Province, Kenya: a cluster-randomized trial.
Improving school water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions reduces pupil absence and illness. However, these benefits may depend on the conditions of the latrines and availability of consumables. We sought to determine whether a low-cost, policy-relevant, environmental-level latrine cleaning intervention could improve latrine cleanliness, increase its use and reduce absenteeism. The additive impact of cleaning may not have been strong enough to impact absence above and beyond reductions attributable to the original WASH infrastructure improvements and basic hygiene education the schools previously received. Improving latrine conditions is important for the dignity and well-being of pupils, and investments and strategies are necessary to ensure that school toilets are clean and pupil-friendly.
13 – BMC Public Health. 2014 Sep – Assessment of factors influencing hygiene behaviour among school children in Mereb-Leke District, Northern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.
This study has shown that knowledge, awareness, training on hygiene and sanitation, being a member of hygiene and sanitation club, experience of visiting model school, and parent’s health package status were factors influenced hygiene behaviour.
14 – Am J Public Health. 2014 Jan – The impact of school water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions on the health of younger siblings of pupils: a cluster-randomized trial in Kenya.
We examined the impact of school water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions on diarrhea-related outcomes among younger siblings of school-going children. In water-scarce areas, school WASH interventions that include robust water supply improvements can reduce diarrheal diseases among young children.
2013
15 – Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2013 Nov – The impact of a school-based hygiene, water quality and sanitation intervention on soil-transmitted helminth reinfection: a cluster-randomized trial.
Provision of school-based sanitation, water quality, and hygiene improvements may reduce reinfection of STHs after school-based deworming, but the magnitude of the effects may be sex- and helminth species-specific.
16 – J Water Sanit Hyg Dev. 2013 Oct – A cluster-randomized trial assessing the impact of school water, sanitation, and hygiene improvements on pupil enrollment and gender parity in enrollment.
Our findings suggest that increased school enrollment and improved gender parity may be influenced by a comprehensive WASH program that includes an improved water source; schools with poor water access during the dry season may benefit most from these interventions.
17 – J Water Health. 2013 Sep –Improving service delivery of water, sanitation, and hygiene in primary schools: a cluster-randomized trial in western Kenya.
Intervention schools made significant improvements in provision of soap and handwashing water, treated drinking water, and clean latrines compared with controls. Teachers reported benefits of monitoring, repairs, and a WASH attendant, but quantitative data of WASH conditions did not determine whether expanded interventions out-performed our budget-only intervention. Providing schools with budgets for WASH operational costs improved access to necessary supplies, but did not ensure consistent service delivery to students. Further work is needed to clarify how schools can provide WASH services daily.
2012
18 Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2012 Oct -Impact of a hygiene curriculum and the installation of simple handwashing and drinking water stations in rural Kenyan primary schools on student health and hygiene practices.
Through biweekly student household visits and two annual surveys, we compared the effect of the intervention on hygiene practices and reported student illness. We saw improvement in proper handwashing techniques after the school program was introduced. We observed a decrease in the median percentage of students with acute respiratory illness among those exposed to the program; no decrease in acute diarrhea was seen. Students in this school program exhibited sustained improvement in hygiene knowledge and a decreased risk of respiratory infections after the intervention.
19 – Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2012 Aug – Water and sanitation in schools: a systematic review of the health and educational outcomes.
The studies provide evidence for an increase in water intake with increased provision of water and increased access to water facilities. Articles also report an increase in absenteeism from schools in developing countries during menses due to inadequate sanitation facilities. Lastly, there is a reported decrease in diarrheal and gastrointestinal diseases with increased access to adequate sanitation facilities in schools. Ensuring ready access to safe drinking water, and hygienic toilets that offer privacy to users has great potential to beneficially impact children’s health. Additional studies that examine the relationship between sanitation provisions in schools are needed to more adequately characterize the impact of water and sanitation on educational achievements.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: WASH in schools 
