Background: The place where a person lives has a deep impact on his/her health status. The World Health Organization has highlighted the need to create healthy housing and neighborhood.
Aims and Objectives: This study was conducted to explore the correlation between home environment and health as very few studies have been conducted in this field.
Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural field practice of Government Medical College. As 10% of the houses were planned to be studied for the physical environment, so every 10th house was visited with a total of 117 houses for assessing the environmental factors and health problems in the households.
Results: While open defecation was in practice in 19.6% of the houses, waste collection points nearby in 68.4% of the houses, and house flies around 82.1% of the houses, cases of diarrhea and typhoid were reported by 5.1% and 3.4% of the houses, respectively. The presence of mosquitoes in 82.1% of the houses and poor drainage system in 12.8% of the houses resulted in malaria and dengue in 5.9% and 1.7% of the houses, respectively. Occurrence of dog bite cases in 7.7% of the houses had been due to presence of stray dogs around 87.1% of the houses.
Conclusion: Poor sanitary conditions near the house contribute to health issues such as diarrhea, typhoid fever, worm infestations, acute respiratory infections, and others.
Key words: Housing; Environment; Sanitary Conditions; Health Issues; Acute Respiratory Infections
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