Publication:

Socio-demographic determinants of open defecation in rural parts of Bhopal city

Background Open defecation (OD) is still prevalent in many parts of India in spite of launching Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) by central government. So, this programme is extended to achieve the target of open defecation free (ODF) India. To determine the prevalence of open defection and associated socio-demographic factors.

Methods A total 1000 study participants were included for study in the rural field practice area of medical college which was carried out for the duration of one year. A pre-designed, pre-tested questionnaire was chosen as a tool for data collection. Binary logistic regression analysis was applied to show the association between OD and socio-demographic factors using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) 23 version.

Results The prevalence of OD was 27.7% and factors such as age, education, occupation, socio economic status (SES), marital status and type of family were found significantly associated with it.

Conclusions OD is more commonly prevalent (27.7%) in rural area in present study. This practice is associated with various socio demographic factors and age, education, occupation, SES, marital status and type of family were found significant predictors for OD.