Abstract
Introduction
Open defecation still remains a public concern for developing countries. Fifteen percent of world's
population still practice defecation in the open and most of them live in rural areas. Access to sanitation facilities can reduce the open defecation rate. Although sanitation facility is crucial, its coverage and utilization in Cambodia still remain low. Since little has been known about this problem and there are very few studies on this topic conducted in Cambodia; therefore, this study aims to
explore toilet ownership coverage and its associated factors among households in Cambodia.
Methods
This study used a dataset from the Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS) 2015 of the Ministry of Planning. Three-stage stratified cluster sampling was used in VAWS to collect samples of 4000 women aged between 15 to 64 years old from 4000 households in 24 provinces. A structured questionnaire was used to generate data. Data were analyzed using Stata V12.
Results
This study shows that only 52.9% of households in Cambodia owned a latrine at home. The category of household head, education level, religion, living location, spousal education, size of household, improved source of drinking water, and wealth rank was significantly associated with toilet ownership (P<0.05).
Conclusion
Latrine coverage in Cambodia still remains low, especially in rural Cambodia. Sanitation campaign
should be prioritized households in remote areas and households that are led by women's heads.
Intervention in education will improve latrine coverage in the future.