RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: For safe drinking water, household water treatments (HWT) is important to reduce the risk of diarrhea in low-and-middle countries including Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). However, the measurement of HWT relies chiefly on self-report in most nationwide surveys. Thus, the validity of self-reported measurement is of concern. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of households with the presence of boiled water among households that report boiling practices in a rural area of the Lao PDR. METHODS: This study was conducted with randomly selected 108 households in the four villages in the catchment area of the two health centers, in Xepon district of the Savannakhet province, between September and October 2023. The inclusion criterion of the households was the households that report boiling as HWT. Surveyors conducted interviews with an adult household member and observations on boiled water through household visits, using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were conducted to summarize the collected information using the frequency with proportion for categorical variables and the median with interquartile range for continuous variables. Bivariate analyses were conducted to assess an association between each of the factors and the presence of boiled water, using Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Among the 108 households that reported boiling practice, 91 households were able to show the surveyor self-reported boiled water. Thus, the proportion of households with the presence of boiled water was 90.1% (95% confidence interval: 82.5-95.1%). Households with a fixed schedule of boiling were significantly more likely to present boiled water, compared to households without (94.5% vs. 50.0%). Not all household members do not necessarily drink boiled water: approximately a quarter (25.7%) of the participants reported that some household members drink unboiled water. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that among households that reported boiling drinking water, 90.1% were able to present a container with self-reported boiled water. It suggests that the self-reported measure of boiling practices can be valid in the study villages.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Pathogenic genetic testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can detect viruses with high sensitivity; however, there are several challenges. In the prevention, testing, and treatment of COVID-19, more effective, safer, and convenient methods are desired. We evaluated the possibility of monocyte distribution width (MDW) as an infection biomarker in COVID-19 testing. METHODS: The efficacy of MDW as a screening test for COVID-19 was retrospectively assessed in 80 patients in the COVID-19 group and 232 patients in the non-COVID-19 group (141 patients with acute respiratory infection, 19 patients with nonrespiratory infection, one patient with a viral infection, 11 patients who had received treatment for COVID-19, one patient in contact with COVID-19 patients, and 59 patients with noninfectious disease). RESULTS: The median MDW in 80 patients in the COVID-19 group was 23.3 (17.2-33.6), and the median MDW in 232 patients in the non-COVID-19 group was 19.0 (13.6-30.2) (P < 0.001). When the COVID-19 group was identified using the MDW cut-off value of 21.3 from the non-COVID-19 group, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.844, and the sensitivity and specificity were 81.3% and 78.2%, respectively. Comparison of MDW by severity between the COVID-19 group and patients with acute respiratory infection in the non-COVID-19 group showed that MDW was significantly higher in the COVID-19 group for all mild, moderate I, and moderate II disease. CONCLUSIONS: MDW (cut-off value: 21.3) may be used as a screening test for COVID-19 in fever outpatients. Trial registration This study was conducted after being approved by the ethics committee of National Hospital Organization Omuta National Hospital (Approval No. 3-19). This study can be accessed via https://omuta.hosp.go.jp/files/000179721.pdf .