Water Currents: Handwashing Research, January – June 2019
The January to June 2019 Handwashing Research Index is the result of a collaboration between the Global Handwashing Partnership and the USAID Water Communications and Knowledge Management Project. 
The index includes 36 peer-reviewed studies from 2019 that explore handwashing in connection with diverse programmatic areas. It also includes several studies from 2018 that were not included in the 2018 Index due to publication timelines.
This issue of Water Currents features selected studies from the index, as well as links to handwashing-related websites.
Overviews
Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000–2017: Special Focus on Inequalities. WHO; UNICEF, June 2019. In 2017, 22 percent of the global population (1.6 billion people) had handwashing facilities that lacked water or soap, and 18 percent (1.4 billion people) had no handwashing facility at all.
Handwashing with Soap after Potential Faecal Contact: Global, Regional and Country Estimates for Handwashing with Soap after Potential Faecal Contact. International Journal of Epidemiology, December 2018. Researchers found that many people lack a designated handwashing facility, but even among those with access, handwashing with soap is poorly practiced. People with access to designated handwashing facilities are about twice as likely to wash their hands with soap after potential fecal contact as people who lack a facility.
Community Settings
Child Defecation and Feces Disposal Practices and Determinants among Households after a Combined Household-Level Piped Water and Sanitation Intervention in Rural Odisha, India. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, April 2019. A study in rural India found that disposal of child feces into a latrine was uncommon, even among households with access to an improved pour-flush latrine that was used by adults in the household.
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