A Systematic Review of Diarrheal Disease: Its Differential Burden between Genders and the Role of Women in the Abatement of This Epidemic?
Location
Room 2901
Session Format
Paper Presentation
Research Area Topic:
Public Health & Well Being - Epidemiologic Research
Abstract
Even though research on diarrheal diseases has been done in the past, some aspects have remained unexplored. One of these aspects is the differential disease burden and vulnerability to disease between males and females in addition to the unique causal/behavioral pathways through which each gender can get infected. We try to shed light on these important issues by performing a systematic review of relevant articles chosen from the literature. We searched PubMed for peer-reviewed articles, and included grey literature from the World Health Organization, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. All articles that deal with the public health relevance of diarrheal diseases, focus on access to clean water and care taker role in access to clean water, role of gender in sanitation, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions, helminth infections, discrepancies in health care with regard to diarrheal diseases in rural and urban environments and differential gender burden with regard to infectious diarrheal diseases are included in this study. Articles which do not address diarrheal diseases, topics that are not relevant to diarrheal diseases, do not address the role of sanitation, access to clean water or WASH interventions in diarrheal diseases or helminth infections, articles that are not epidemiologically linked or articles that deal with rare pathogens or diseases, pathogens that are mainly prevalent in the immuno-compromised population, therapeutic regimens or diagnostic techniques, molecular genetics, drug resistance or seasonal variations were excluded from the study.
From our systematic review, we concluded that the burden of diarrheal disease falls more on females qualitatively than males. Women empowerment in making household and community level decisions with regard to sanitation may be of greater benefit to the well-being of society in developing countries. This will require strong government support and sustainable policies at the community and state levels.
Some limitations of our study are: The study participants in most of the studies belonged to either the adolescent or the preadolescent age group, which could have resulted in age bias. Secondly, because of the huge amount of articles that were retrieved, there is a small but very unlikely chance that any relevant articles might have been missed. Lastly, we provide qualitative evidence of differential burden of diarrheal disease between genders. A quantitative study will help consolidate our current findings.
Keywords
Gender, Diarrheal, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene
Presentation Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Start Date
4-24-2015 1:30 PM
End Date
4-24-2015 2:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Sevilimedu, Varadan, "A Systematic Review of Diarrheal Disease: Its Differential Burden between Genders and the Role of Women in the Abatement of This Epidemic?" (2015). GS4 Georgia Southern Student Scholars Symposium. 79.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2015/2015/79
A Systematic Review of Diarrheal Disease: Its Differential Burden between Genders and the Role of Women in the Abatement of This Epidemic?
Room 2901
Even though research on diarrheal diseases has been done in the past, some aspects have remained unexplored. One of these aspects is the differential disease burden and vulnerability to disease between males and females in addition to the unique causal/behavioral pathways through which each gender can get infected. We try to shed light on these important issues by performing a systematic review of relevant articles chosen from the literature. We searched PubMed for peer-reviewed articles, and included grey literature from the World Health Organization, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. All articles that deal with the public health relevance of diarrheal diseases, focus on access to clean water and care taker role in access to clean water, role of gender in sanitation, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions, helminth infections, discrepancies in health care with regard to diarrheal diseases in rural and urban environments and differential gender burden with regard to infectious diarrheal diseases are included in this study. Articles which do not address diarrheal diseases, topics that are not relevant to diarrheal diseases, do not address the role of sanitation, access to clean water or WASH interventions in diarrheal diseases or helminth infections, articles that are not epidemiologically linked or articles that deal with rare pathogens or diseases, pathogens that are mainly prevalent in the immuno-compromised population, therapeutic regimens or diagnostic techniques, molecular genetics, drug resistance or seasonal variations were excluded from the study.
From our systematic review, we concluded that the burden of diarrheal disease falls more on females qualitatively than males. Women empowerment in making household and community level decisions with regard to sanitation may be of greater benefit to the well-being of society in developing countries. This will require strong government support and sustainable policies at the community and state levels.
Some limitations of our study are: The study participants in most of the studies belonged to either the adolescent or the preadolescent age group, which could have resulted in age bias. Secondly, because of the huge amount of articles that were retrieved, there is a small but very unlikely chance that any relevant articles might have been missed. Lastly, we provide qualitative evidence of differential burden of diarrheal disease between genders. A quantitative study will help consolidate our current findings.
