Measuring the Effect of WASH Benefits Interventions on Child Development Outcomes at School Age: Follow up of an Efficacy Trial in Rural Bangladesh

Globally, millions of children experience delays in physical health and cognitive development, due to their exposures to poverty and related issues. In low-and middle-income countries, children experience a dis-proportionally high burden of exposure to poverty and related risk factors for delayed development including of poor health and nutrition, inadequate responsive care giving, and a lack of opportunities for early learning. Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions have the potential to positively affect the developmental trajectories of children by reducing enteric pathogen infection, improving child health, and altering parental care practices. A recent cluster-randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in Bangladesh (WASH-Benefits, or WASH-B, Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT01590095), found that improvements in WASH or nutrition supported by intensive interpersonal communication, when delivered either individually or in combination, contributed to improvements in child development outcomes at 1 and 2 years of age, and mothers in all intervention groups reported lower depressive symptoms than mothers in the control households.

This follow-up study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, includes assessments of the children and caregivers originally enrolled in the WASH Benefits intervention 5 years following intervention completion, when the children are 5-8 year of age. The original WASH Benefits intervention enrolled pregnant women between May 31, 2012, and July 7, 2013. The goal of this follow-up study is to examine whether the improvements in child development and maternal mental health are sustained when the children are in middle childhood. Our guiding hypothesis is that interventions that showed early impact will continue to improve child and maternal outcomes at this follow-up time period. Investigators will attempt to collect follow-up data from every household originally randomized to one of the 7 arms in the WASH Benefits trial.