Andrew Mertens, Benjamin F Arnold, Jade Benjamin-Chung, Alexandria B Boehm, Joe Brown, Drew Capone, Thomas Clasen, Erica R Fuhrmeister, Jessica A Grembi, David Holcomb, Jackie Knee, Laura H Kwong, Audrie Lin, Stephen P Luby, Rassul Nala, Kara Nelson, Sammy M Njenga, Clair Null, Amy J Pickering, Mahbubur Rahman, Heather E Reese, Lauren Steinbaum, Jill R Stewart, Ruwan Thilakaratne, Oliver Cumming, John M Colford, Ayse Ercumen
BACKGROUND: Quantifying contributions of environmental faecal contamination to child diarrhoea and growth faltering can illuminate causal mechanisms behind modest health benefits in recent water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) trials. We aimed to assess associations between environmental detection of enteropathogens and human or animal microbial source tracking markers (MSTM) and subsequent child health outcomes. METHODS: In this individual participant data meta-analysis we searched we searched PubMed, Embase, CAB Direct Global Health, Agricultural and Environmental Science Database, Web of Science, and Scopus for WASH intervention studies with a prospective design and concurrent control that measured enteropathogens or MSTM in environmental samples, or both, and subsequently measured enteric infections, diarrhoea, or height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) in children younger than 5 years...
March 2024: Lancet Global Health