Association between Stunting and Wash Practices among Under-Five Children in Central Rural India: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Stunting contributes to child mortality and serves as an indicator of disparities in human development. Children who experience stunting do not attain their physical and mental potential. In early childhood, it serves as a robust indicator of healthy development and is associated with various child development areas, such as cognitive, language, and sensory-motor skills. Determinants of stunting are maternal undernutrition and health, inadequate infant and young child feeding practices, frequent infections, especially diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses, poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) leading to diarrhoea and environment enteric dysfunction (EED), socioeconomic and environmental factors. The connections between inadequate WASH and childhood stunting are intricate, involving several direct biological pathways as well as numerous wider, indirect pathways such as repeated diarrhea, infection pathways, and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED). There is a lack of research on the relationship between stunting and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices in central rural India. This study will help develop and implement health education strategies and necessary interventions to reduce the stunting rate. To address this research gap, our study aims to investigate the relationships between stunting and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) practices in central rural India.