An Analysis of Limited Sanitation, Health Behavior, and Implementation of Health Education in Villa El Salvador, Peru

Undergraduate: Olivia Anderson

Faculty Advisor: Karin Yeatts
Department: Biology

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Gastrointestinal diseases for children under 5 in Lima, Peru is endemic especially in lower-socioeconomic areas. The clinic of San Martin de Porres in the district Villa el Salvador, a lower socioeconomic area that used to be a slum has ~15% of children under 5 with Giardia lamblia, 3-5% with Ascaris lumbricoides, and 1-2% with Taenia solium (clinic statistics) which all cause diarrhea and dehydration. After working with the clinicians and observing in the laboratory, we developed a survey based on the clinic¿¿¿s interest in the main factors contributing to the spread of these diseases, including children¿¿¿s views on hand washing, handwashing frequency before and after certain activities, and stomach pains and sickness episodes per month. We distributed the UNC IRB exempted survey at a district wide health campaign and 20 children under 13 consented to participate. In addition to distributing surveys, a hand washing demonstration for all children (consenting to survey or not) was done based on the Peru Ministry of Health recommendations. We found that children who reported belief that hand washing prevents illness had less sickness episodes per month versus those who did not (means of 1.42, 1.86). The frequency of hand washing was also related to a mean decrease in sickness episodes and stomach pain episodes. We used our findings on the most pertinent issues and ideas about sanitation to create a hand washing poster for the clinic.