Let the "A" in WASH Stand for Air: Integrating Research and Interventions to Improve Household Air Pollution (HAP) and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) in Low-Income Settings
Let the "A" in WASH Stand for Air: Integrating Research and Interventions to Improve Household Air Pollution (HAP) and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) in Low-Income Settings
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DOI：
10.1289/ehp4752
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发表时间：
2019-02-01
影响因子：
10.4
通讯作者：
Smith, Kirk R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Clasen, Thomas;Smith, Kirk R.
背景：研究往往遭受过度专业化，在学术界培育和资助者加强的做法。事实上，在世界贫困地区工作的家庭空气污染（HAP）和水，环境卫生和个人卫生（WaSH）调查人员很少互动，尽管他们接受过类似的培训，并使用类似的方法来评估对同一弱势群体的干预措施。最近对改良炉灶和传统WaSH方法的试验结果令人失望，这表明需要替代方法。结论：我们认为，将这两个领域结合起来将提高干预措施的有效性和效率，以减少与HAP和贫困WaSH相关的巨大疾病负担，包括肺炎和腹泻，这是低收入国家幼儿的主要杀手。HAP和WASH面临着类似的挑战，在设计，实施，并确保可扩展的干预措施，如清洁燃料和水的持续和独家使用。讨论：研究可以通过展示他们的相互作用和更广泛的影响，对福祉以及潜在的方案协同作用，促进这些领域的更大的协调。清洁家庭和社区的综合解决方案可以从多个学科的贡献中受益，包括经济学和政策分析;商业和金融;工程和技术;实验室科学，环境健康和生物医学科学;和行为和实施science.CONCLUSION：有令人信服的理由，以克服人为和非生产性隔离的HAP和WaSH。研究人员应通过扩大合作和项目的范围来鼓励融合。政策制定者、阻碍者和实施者可以通过支持全面解决方案、鼓励创新和要求对其效果进行严格评估来提供帮助。
BACKGROUND: Research often suffers from overspecialization, a practice nurtured in academia and reinforced by funders. Indeed, investigators in household air pollution (HAP) and water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH), working in poor parts of the world, rarely interact despite having similar training and using similar methods to evaluate interventions in the same vulnerable populations. Disappointing results from recent trials of improved cookstoves and traditional approaches to WaSH suggest the need for alternative approaches.OBJECTIVES: We argue that bringing these two areas together would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions to reduce the massive disease burden associated with HAP and poor WaSH, including pneumonia and diarrhea, the leading killers of young children in low-income countries.RESULTS: HAP and WaSH face similar challenges in designing, implementing, and securing the sustained and exclusive use of scalable interventions such as clean fuel and water.DISCUSSION: Research can advance greater coordination of these areas by demonstrating their interactions and wider impacts on well-being as well as the potential for programmatic synergies. Integrated solutions to clean households and communities can benefit from the contribution in multiple disciplines, including economics and policy analysis; business and finance; engineering and technology; lab sciences, environmental health, and biomedical sciences; and behavioral and implementation sciences.CONCLUSION: There are compelling reasons to overcome the artificial and unproductive segregation of HAP and WaSH. Researchers should encourage integration by expanding the scope of their collaborations and projects. Policy makers, hinders, and implementers can help by supporting comprehensive solutions, encouraging innovation, and requiring rigorous evaluations of their effects.