Diarrhea Prevalence in East Java, Indonesia: Does Access to Sanitation and Health Behavior Ecologically Related?

Abstract

Diarrhea is still a problem in East Java in Indonesia. The study aims to analyze the ecological relationship
between sanitation access and health behavior with diarrhea prevalence in East Java, Indonesia.The research
conducted the ecological analysis using secondary data from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of
Indonesia report in 2018. The study takes all regencies/cities in East Java Provinces as samples. Apart from
the diarrhea prevalence in children underfive, four other variables analyzed as independent variables were
access and clean water sources, the percentage of coverage of access to healthy latrines, the proportion
of proper handwashing behavior, and the proportion of defecating behavior in healthy latrines.The study
analyzed data using a scatter plot.The study results found that the higher the percentage of coverage of
access and clean water source in regency/city, the lower the prevalence of diarrhea in children under five in
that regency/city. The higher the percentage of access to healthy latrines in a region, the lower the majority
of diarrhea in children under five.Meanwhile, the higher the proper handwashing behavior proportion in
an area, the lower the prevalence of diarrhea in children under five in that area. Moreover, the higher the
proportion of defecating behavior in healthy latrines in a region, the lower the prevalence of diarrhea in
children under five. The study concluded that sanitation access and health behavior were related to the
diarrhea prevalence in children underfive.