Assessment of the psychological dimension to open defecation in Ogun State

Abstract

The possibility of faecal exposure increasing risk for COVID-19 infection makes imperative the need to interrogate current sanitation practices, as emerging studies indicate the possibility that the oral-faecal pathway could serve as an alternative to the respiratory and contact transmissions. This would help provide an analytical premise for planned improvement and greater precaution in ensuring human waste is safely contained, emptied, transported, and disposed or treated. This study adopts the RANT model (Risk, Attitude, Norm, and Toilet Management factors) in order to expatiate on the psychological determinants of open defecation by households who currently have toilets and either share them or use them separately. This is with a view to proffering suggestions on the sustainable measures for faecal waste management within Ogun state, Nigeria. Using a four-level multi-stage approach, questionnaires were administered to a total of 330 households within Ogun State, Nigeria. In the logistic modelling of the psychological factors explaining why households still defecate in the open, an indicator of the risk factor was more significant in the tendency of households, where toilets are shared, to still defecate in the open. Moreover, an indicator of the norm factor would explain why households who do not share toilets still defecate in the open. The study recommends the need to mainstream, and implement effectively, initiatives such as planning and landscaping of open spaces, bus terminals with adequate toilets, installations of signpost warning against open defecation, comprehensive water schemes in cities’ master plans of Ogun state, as a sustainable means of discouraging open defecation, and reducing the risk factors for COVID-19 infection and exposure to other infectious diseases.