Latrine Utilization and Associated Factors among Rural Communities of Dire Dawa City Administration, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Background: Globally, about 2.6 billion people (39%) and almost half the population of developing regions were not using an improved form of sanitation in 2008. An estimated, 1.1 billion people did not use any facility at all and practiced open-defecation. Most of the rural population of Africa does not have access to safe and reliable toilets and for nearly 1 in 3 people practice the trend. Objective: To assess latrine utilization and the associated factors among rural communities of Dire Dawa Administration, Ethiopia October to November 2017. Method: A community based quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted on 796 rural households of Dire Dawa city administration from October to November 2017. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select the sampled households and data was collected using a pre-tested, structured questionnaire and observational checklist. The data entry, cleaning and analysis were performed using SPSS version 20. A bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors affecting latrine utilization. Finally, 95% confidence interval (CI) and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) was computed in order to identify statistically significant associations between latrine utilization and associated factors. The level of statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results: Among the 796 selected households, 23.1% households utilized latrine properly, while, 73.2 % households who did not utilized latrine properly latrine. Educational status of husband[AOR=0.226, 95% CI: 0.074-0.687], latrine construction material [AOR=3.136, 95%CI: 1.693-5.81], presence of roof [AOR=0.497, 95%CI: 0.291-0.849], motivation for constructing and using this latrine [AOR=2.1, 95%CI: 1.098-4.051], culture [AOR=2.47, 95%CI: 1.13-5.3] had showed a significant association with latrine utilization in the multivariate analysis at p < 0.05. Conclusion and Recommendation: This study concluded that the latrine utilization rate of the households is not satisfactory. Educational status of husband, latrine construction material, presence of roof, Frequency of latrine use, health workers motivation and culture was the major factors affecting utilization of latrines. Therefore, participatory approaches must be used to promote behavioral change of communities for sustainable and consistent latrine utilization. Key word: Latrine utilization; Prevalence; Associated factors; Rural community of Dire Dawa city Administration; Eastern Ethiopia