Use of sanitary latrines in Rural Health Training Center area of a Medical College

Background: Improvement in the sanitation is an important aspect from community point of view so that the burden of communicable diseases can be reduced. Use of sanitary latrine in a community is considered as an index for sanitation of that community. Objective: To study use of sanitary latrines in Rural Health Training Center area of a Medical College Methods: A community based cross sectional study was carried out in three randomly selected villages from November 2017 to January 2018 in the rural field practice area, Gummadidala under Department of Community Medicine, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Suraram. During the study period we surveyed 447 houses in these three villages. One respondent from each house was interviewed regarding the use of sanitary latrine Results: More than half of the participants were aware about the Swacch Bharat Mission. The most common source of information on SBM was television in 65.9% of the cases. 80.5% of the household members were using sanitary latrine. The most common reason for not using sanitary latrine was lack of money in 60.9% of the cases. Among 347 households having sanitary latrine at their home and using it, 53 (15.3%) told that they were able to construct sanitary latrine due to aid from Government. 39.6% received 10,000 to 15,000 INR for construction of sanitary latrine. Factors like employment status, and type of family were not found to be associated with not using sanitary latrine. Still 43.7% among them used only water to wash hand and did not use soap. Majority (57.7%) were aware that some diseases were transmitted due to open air defecation. Only 17.4% had correct knowledge of diseases transmitted due to open air defecation among those who were found aware that open air defecation leads to some diseases. Conclusion: More than half of the participants were aware about the Swacch Bharat Mission. 80.5% of the household members were using sanitary latrine. The most common reason for not using sanitary latrine was lack of money in 60.9%