EVALUATION OF THE DIARRHEA INDICATOR IN THE ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATION BETWEEN SOLID WASTE AND HEALTH

Abstract

Diarrhea morbidity has been the most used health indicator in the assessment of the impact of sanitation improvement on health. There are few studies that have used this indicator for the assessment of the relation between solid waste disposal and human health. In the present work, diarrhea is used as a health indicator in a study developed to evaluate the health risk of people who live near a municipal solid waste landfill, located in the city of São Paulo, SP, Brazil. This epidemiological study used a transversal design. The study population was 972 children, from 1 to 5 years of age, living next to the landfill. The studied area was divided into 500-meter bands, starting from the landfill limit to define the exposure conditions. The health indicator used was diarrhea prevalence. A logistical regression model was used to study the factors related to diarrhea occurrence. In the study area, the data related to the following aspects were achieved: social and economical conditions of the family, house conditions and waste water system, water supply, domestic solid waste, urban drainage, biological and mechanical vectors, family and children health conditions and neighboring residential conditions. The results led to the conclusion that the diarrhea morbidity indicator was not specific to the assessment of the researched associations.

Key Words: Diarrhea Diseases, Environmental Exposure, Epidemiology, Landfill, Solid Waste.