Associations Between Bottled Water Consumption and Diarrhea Among Adults in Indonesia

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze drinking water types and their relationship with diarrheal disease in adults. Cross-sectional study design was selected for this study and data were retrieved from 2018 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) in 34 provinces in Indonesia. The sample of this study included household members with a total of 495,239 respondents. Data were analyzed using multinomial regression statistical methods to observe the relationship between drinking water types and other risk factors of diarrhea. The results of the analysis showed that the case of diarrhea in adults was at 6.3%. Respondents who consumed bottled water had a 1.2 times risk of not experiencing diarrhea compared to those who consume unimproved drinking water after controlled with defecation behaviour (OR= 1.20; 95% CI: 1.20 to 1.21; P< 0.005). Respondents who consumed refill drinking water had the same likelihood of not having diarrhea as those who consumed unimproved drinking water (OR= 0.99; 95% CI: 0.98 to 0.99; P< 0.05). Consumption of bottled drinking water is safer than refill drinking water in relation to the prevalence of diarrhea. Therefore, it is important to treat drinking water properly prior to consuming refill drinking water.