*3.7. Improvements in Household Practices*

Having identified several areas of improvement in attitudes towards nutrition, food preparation and hygiene, we also investigated improvements in related household practices across the CSVs, again using McNemar's test to evaluate the significance of any changes (Table 8).

**Table 8.** Proportion of respondents who agree on the *practice statements* in household nutrition in four CSVs.


*(a) The statements used for HH practices were as follows:*

*1. Every person should drink at least 8 glasses of water every day in order to maintain good health. 2. I gave my children fruits, root crops and banana as snacks.*

*3. It is ok to wash vegetables and meat with any kind of water. 4. We have a vegetable garden at home.*

*5. Eating rice alone is enough to provide humans the proper nutrition for good*

*7. I sliced my vegetables first before I wash them. 8. I put oil into the food when cooking.*

*health. 6. I have difficulty convincing my children to eat vegetables.*

*9. We only serve vegetables 3 times a week. 10. We wash our hands after we use the toilet, before we prepare food and before we eat.*

*11. We make sure that flies do not come to our food. 12. We boil our drinking water we got from rain and from the pond before we drink it.*

*13. My children are breast-fed for 2 years. 14. Kitchen and eating utensils must be washed with clean water to prevent diseases.*

*15. Deworming is important to make children healthy.*

*(b) A positive statement ideally shall have move agree responses and a negative statement shall have less agree responses*

*(c) McNemar's test was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the proportion (increase or decrease) over time. If p-value < 0.05, then the proportion was statistically significant at 5%. If p-value < 0.01, then the proportion was statistically significant at 1%. Note: "No responses" were excluded from the analysis.*

> Statements 1, 2, 5 and 9 relate to dietary diversification and to the consumption of clean drinking water. The Htee Pu CSV and Ma Sein CSVs exhibited significant improvements in the practice of giving children fruits, root crops and bananas as snacks. Htee PU CSV together with Saktha CSV also showed improvements in the practice of including vegetables in the diet more than three times a week, while Saktha CSV also showed a significant improvement in the practice of not only eating rice to ensure proper nutrition. All four

CSVs showed significant improvements in the practice of consuming the recommended amount of drinking water per day.

In agreement with the improved awareness, all four CSVs showed improvements in the proportion of households having home vegetable gardens, which were statistically significant for Htee Pu and Saktha (statement 4).

In relation to hygiene practices, not all CSVs showed significant improvements. The TKM CSV showed improvements in the practice of using clean water to wash vegetables (statement 3). The Htee Pu and Ma Sein CSVs also showed significant improvements in the practice of boiling rain and pond water before drinking (statement 12). Rain and pond water are important sources of water in the dry zone and delta regions, where the Htee Pu and Ma Sein CSVs are located, while upland and hilly villages may have more access to spring water for drinking. The Ma Sein and Saktha CSVs showed significant improvements in the practice of deworming children.
