Assessment of Social Demographic Characteristics Influencing the Uptake Community Led Total Sanitation Strategy in Embu County, Kenya

Abstract

The open defecation(OD) status of Mbeere North Sub-county as at 2019 stood at 138 villages against the required 254 villages triggered. Though conceived to end open defecation practice, Community Led Total Sanitation(CLTS) has not achieved this goal in Mbeere north sub county since some people still use forests and available hideouts. It is not clear why CLTS, which is a key component of primary healthcare, has not yielded the intended results, hence the current study investigated the influencers of community led total sanitation strategy among households in Mbeere north sub county, Embu County, Kenya. Specifically, the study aimed to assess social demographic characteristic influencing uptake of CLTS strategy in Mbeere north Sub-county, Embu county. The study employed Socio-Ecological Model as a theoretical guideline. Descriptive cross-sectional study design adopted targeting households and health workers tasked with implementing CLTS strategy. 388 respondents were sampled through fisher et al and applied stratified sampling technique for villages and systematic random sampling technique for household. Questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect data, then analyzed with the aid of SPSS. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed based on applicability. The study found that income (p 0.044), education, (p 0.043), age (p 0.006) and religion (p 0.004) had a significant influence on CLTS strategy in Mbeere North Sub County. Construction of latrines was found to be crucial for addressing open defecation The study recommends that County Health department in conjunction with health stakeholders accelerate the CLTS strategy in order to achieve 100% ODF status.

Keywords: Community, Defecation, Social demographic, Sanitation

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-8-02

Publication date:October 31^st 2021