Safe Water Handling Practice and Its Associated Factors Among Rural Communities in South East Zone of Tigray Region, North Ethiopia, 2024: a Cross-sectional Study

Abstract Background Safe drinking water is a vital to health and survival of individuals and families. Access of safe drinking water to individuals prevents at least 9% of the global disease burden and 6.3% of all deaths. Therefore this study aimed to assess practice of safe water handling and its associated factors among rural communities in Southeast zone of Tigray, North Ethiopia. Methods & Materials: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in rural households of enderta and seharti samere districts, South East zone of Tigray from November 2023-February 2024. A total of 570 head of households were selected for this study using a multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed using SPSS version 20 and a variable having P ≤ 0.05 was considered as significantly associated with the outcome variable. Results A total of 559 head of households were included in this study and making a response rate of 98.1%. Of these, 60.5% were females and more than half of 334(59.7%) the respondents were practicing safe water handling. Almost half (51.5%) of the study participants were used different methods of water treatments to make water safe for drinking at home. Being farmer on occupational status [AOR = 2.674, 95%CI (1.769–4.041)] and having information on water handling [AOR = 0.401, 95%CI (0.186–0.867)] were determinant factors for practice of safe water handling. Conclusion Behavior change in practice of safe water handling, water treatment at home and hand washing practice at critical time did not show remarkable changes. Strengthening of the health education, frequency of home visit by health extension workers and appropriate technical support are the key factors to improve the utilization of safe water handling.