Women’s Access to and Utilization of Sanitation and their Determinant Factors in Some Selected Rural Areas of East Gojjam Zone, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

This study aimed to examine women’s sanitation access and utilization level and their determinants in some selected rural areas of East Gojjam Zone. The research employed cross sectional study design and data was collected from 380 women selected through multistage cluster sampling technique. Proportional odds model and partial proportional odds model were used to estimate the association between different factors and women’s sanitation access and utilization level. The result indicated that out of 380 sampled women, about 42.6% have high sanitation access compared with 34.7% medium and 22.6% low respectively. Despite this however; about 50.9% respondents have low sanitation utilization suggesting a mismatch between sanitation access at household level and women’s utilization status. Household size, access to sanitation facilities, and knowledge about the benefit of latrine utilization were found to be statistically significant determinants of women’s sanitation utilization while marital status, district, household income, participation in women health development team, and dependency ratio were found to be determinants of sanitation access. The study suggests that besides promotions to increase sanitation facility availability, monitoring on the utilization of the facilities need to be strengthened. Income creation capacity of women and their households should be strengthened as well.