Predicting water consumption habits for seven arsenic-safe water options in Bangladesh

Jennifer Inauen,Hans-Joachim Mosler,Robert Tobias

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-417

Abstract

BackgroundIn Bangladesh, 20 million people are at the risk of developing arsenicosis because of excessive arsenic intake. Despite increased awareness, many of the implemented arsenic-safe water options are not being sufficiently used by the population. This study investigated the role of social-cognitive factors in explaining the habitual use of arsenic-safe water options.MethodsEight hundred seventy-two randomly selected households in six arsenic-affected districts of rural Bangladesh, which had access to an arsenic-safe water option, were interviewed using structured face-to-face interviews in November 2009. Habitual use of arsenic-safe water options, severity, vulnerability, affective and instrumental attitudes, injunctive and descriptive norms, self-efficacy, and coping planning were measured. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regressions.ResultsLinear regression revealed that self-efficacy (B = 0.42, SE = .03, p < .001), the instrumental attitude towards the safe water option (B = 0.24, SE = .04, p < .001), the affective attitude towards contaminated tube wells (B = −0.04, SE = .02, p = .024), vulnerability (B = −0.20, SE = .02, p < .001), as well as injunctive (B = 0.08, SE = 0.04, p = .049) and descriptive norms (B = 0.34, SE = .03, p < .001) primarily explained the habitual use of arsenic-safe water options (R2 = 0.688). This model proved highly generalizable to all seven arsenic-safe water options investigated, even though habitual use of single options were predicted on the basis of parameters estimated without these options.ConclusionsThis general model for the habitual use of arsenic-safe water options may prove useful to predict other water consumption habits. Behavior-change interventions are derived from the model to promote the habitual use of arsenic-safe water options.

Highlights

In Bangladesh, 20 million people are at the risk of developing arsenicosis because of excessive arsenic intake
To our knowledge, only one study has investigated the socialcognitive predictors based on health-psychological theory; this study found that the quantity of deep tube well water consumed depends primarily on the descriptive norm [14], that is, the perceptions about which behaviors are typically performed [15]
The present study In summary, this study aimed to develop a simple linear model to explain and predict water consumption habits based on the consumption data of arsenic-safe water in Bangladesh

Summary

Introduction

In Bangladesh, 20 million people are at the risk of developing arsenicosis because of excessive arsenic intake. This study investigated the role of social-cognitive factors in explaining the habitual use of arsenic-safe water options. In Bangladesh, where 20 million people are at the risk of drinking water from arsenic-contaminated wells, the following eight low-cost safe water alternatives are being implemented to provide arsenic-safe and pathogen-free water: (a) deep tube wells that tap deeper, arsenic-free aquifers, (b) rainwater harvesting, (c) household arsenic removal filters, (d) community arsenic removal filters, (e) rural piped water supply that provide safe water by distributing deep tube well or filtered pond and river water, (f ) pond sand filters, which remove pathogens from arsenic-free surface water, (g) dug wells, that is, arsenic-safe, very shallow hand dug wells, and (h) wellswitching, that is, switching to neighbors’ uncontaminated shallow tube wells. Building a more comprehensive model, which can be generalized to more safe water options, would be beneficial to provide a starting point for developing behavior-change interventions [18]

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