Have We Substantially Underestimated the Impact of Improved Sanitation Coverage on Child Health? A Generalized Additive Model Panel Analysis of Global Data on Child Mortality and Malnutrition.

Improving sanitation coverage may be one of the more effective means to reduce childhood mortality, but only if high levels of community coverage are achieved. Studies of the impact of sanitation that focus on the individual's use of improved sanitation as the predictor variable rather than community coverage is likely to severely underestimate the impact of sanitation.