T Clasen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1742347 |
|---|---|
| NAME | T Clasen |
| GIVEN NAMES | T |
| FAMILY NAME | Clasen |
| SIGNATURE | CLASEN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Emory University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4062-5788 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
A critical review on measurement tools of urban household and community resilience to disasters and environmental shocks and stressors among low- and middle-income countries
Development of personal air pollution exposure report-back materials to Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (Hapin) trial participants in Guatemala and Rwanda
BACKGROUND: Report-back of individual exposure information to research participants is recognised in high-income countries as an important, yet often overlooked, component of environmental research, with many potential benefits to study communities. Nonetheless, the optimal means of communicating findings to participants in low-income countries with limited health and scientific literacy is unknown. METHODS: Between March 2021 and May 2022, we co…
Provision of a liquefied petroleum gas cookstove and fuel during pregnancy and infancy and linear growth trajectories between birth and 12 months
Exposure to particulate pollution from cooking with solid biomass fuels is associated with impaired child linear growth. We examined the effect of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookstove randomized controlled trial during pregnancy and infancy on linear growth trajectories among infants born to women enrolled during pregnancy. The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) randomized controlled trial enrolled 3195 pregnant women (9 to…
Exposure–response relationship of household air pollution on body mass index among women in rural areas of Guatemala, India, Peru and Rwanda
Evidence suggests a significant association between CO exposure and increased odds of being overweight/obese, whereas impacts of PM 2.5 and BC on BMI had null or inverse effects
Effect of a behavior change and hardware intervention on safe child feces management practices in rural Odisha, India
This trial was retrospectively registered at ISRCTN15831099 on 18/02/2020, which was approximately two months after the first participant was recruited for the baseline survey on 02/12/2019
The impact of a demand-side sanitation and hygiene promotion intervention on sustained behavior change and health in Amhara, Ethiopia
Behaviors related to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are key drivers of infectious disease transmission, and experiences of WASH are potential influencers of mental well-being. Important knowledge gaps exist related to the content and delivery of effective WASH programs and their associated health impacts, particularly within the contexts of government programs implemented at scale. We developed and tested a demand-side intervention called …
Facing the Realities of Pragmatic Design Choices in Environmental Health Studies
Objective: Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) investigators tested a complex, non-pharmacological intervention in four low- and middle-income countries as a strategy to mitigate household air pollution and improve health outcomes across the lifespan. Intervention households received a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove, continuous fuel delivery and regular behavioral reinforcements for 18 months, whereas controls were asked to …
Study design and rationale for a cluster randomized trial of a safe child feces management intervention in rural Odisha, India
This trial is registered at ISRCTN: ISRCTN15831099
Developing Visual Messages to Support Liquefied Petroleum Gas Use in Intervention Homes in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (Hapin) Trial in Rural Guatemala
BACKGROUND: Household air pollution adversely affects human health and the environment, yet more than 40% of the world still depends on solid cooking fuels. The House Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) randomized controlled trial is assessing the health effects of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove and 18-month supply of free fuel in 3,200 households in rural Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda. AIMS: We conducted formative research in …
Experience of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Rural Odisha, India
We conducted 131 semi-structured phone interviews with householders in rural Odisha, India to explore participants' COVID-19 related knowledge, perceptions, and preventative actions, as well as how the pandemic affected their daily life, economic and food security, and the village-level response. Interviews were conducted with 73 heads of household, 37 primary caregivers, and 21 members of village water and sanitation committees from 43 rural vil…
Fidelity and Adherence to a Liquefied Petroleum Gas Stove and Fuel Intervention during Gestation
The fidelity of the HAPIN intervention, as measured by stove installation, timely ongoing fuel deliveries, and behavioral reinforcement as needed, was high. Exclusive use of the intervention during pregnancy was also high
Assessing Women’s Menstruation Concerns and Experiences in Rural India
Qualitative research has documented menstruator's challenges, particularly in water and sanitation poor environments, but quantitative assessment is limited. We created and validated a culturally-grounded measure of Menstrual Insecurity to assess women's menstruation-related concerns and negative experiences. With cross-sectional data from 878 menstruating women in rural Odisha, India, we carried out Exploratory (EFA) and Confirmatory (CFA) Facto…
Child Salivary SIgA and Its Relationship to Enteric Infections and EED Biomarkers in Maputo, Mozambique
Characterizing child immunological responses to enteric infections with antibody detection in serum can be challenging in resource-constrained field settings, because sample collection requires trained individuals and its invasive procedure may lead to low response rates, especially among children. Saliva may present a promising non-invasive alternative. The objectives of this research were to compare salivary antibody levels in children to enter…
Exposure contrasts associated with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) intervention at potential field sites for the multi-country household air pollution intervention network (Hapin) trial in India
ClinicalTrials.Gov. NCT02944682 ; Prospectively registered on October 17, 2016
The implications of three major new trials for the effect of water, sanitation and hygiene on childhood diarrhea and stunting
BACKGROUND: Three large new trials of unprecedented scale and cost, which included novel factorial designs, have found no effect of basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions on childhood stunting, and only mixed effects on childhood diarrhea. Arriving at the inception of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, and the bold new target of safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030, these results warrant t…
Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene for selected adverse health outcomes
BACKGROUND: To develop updated estimates in response to new exposure and exposure-response data of the burden of diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malnutrition, schistosomiasis, malaria, soil-transmitted helminth infections and trachoma from exposure to inadequate drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene behaviours (WASH) with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: For each of the analysed diseases, exposure levels with both suffici…
Impact of a school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene intervention on school absence, diarrhea, respiratory infection, and soil-transmitted helminths
BACKGROUND: Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools is promoted by development agencies as a modality to improve school attendance by reducing illness. Despite biological plausibility, the few rigorous studies that have assessed the effect of WASH in schools (WinS) interventions on pupil health and school attendance have reported mixed impacts. We evaluated the impact of the Laos Basic Education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme -…
Sanitation and Collective Efficacy in Rural Cambodia
Community-level action may be required to achieve the levels of sanitation uptake necessary for health gains. Evidence suggests that collective action is influenced by collective efficacy (CE)-a group's belief in its abilities to organize and execute action to achieve common goals. The extent to which it is necessary to fully contextualize existing CE measurement tools, in order to conduct meaningful assessments of the factors influencing CE perc…
Modeling the Impact of an Indoor Air Filter on Air Pollution Exposure Reduction and Associated Mortality in Urban Delhi Household
Indoor exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) is a prominent health concern. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of long-term use of indoor air filters for reduction of PM 2.5 exposure and associated decrease in adverse health impacts in urban India. We conducted 20 simulations of yearlong personal exposure to PM 2.5 in urban Delhi using the National Institute of Standards and Technology's CONTAM program (NIST, Gaithersbur…
Groundwater Chemistry and Blood Pressure
Background : We assessed the association of groundwater chemicals with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Methods: Blood pressure data for ≥35-year-olds were from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey in 2011. Groundwater chemicals in 3534 well water samples from Bangladesh were measured by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in 1998-1999. Participants who reported groundwater as their primary source of drink…
A cluster-randomized multi-level intervention to increase latrine use and safe disposal of child feces in rural Odisha, India
This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03274245
Effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on diarrhoea and child growth in rural Kenya
Background Poor nutrition and exposure to faecal contamination are associated with diarrhoea and growth faltering, both of which have long-term consequences for child health. We aimed to assess whether water, sanitation, handwashing, and nutrition interventions reduced diarrhoea or growth faltering. Methods The WASH Benefits cluster-randomised trial enrolled pregnant women from villages in rural Kenya and evaluated outcomes at 1 year and 2 years …
Impact of drinking water, sanitation and handwashing with soap on childhood diarrhoeal disease
Effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on diarrhoea and child growth in rural Bangladesh
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea and growth faltering in early childhood are associated with subsequent adverse outcomes. We aimed to assess whether water quality, sanitation, and handwashing interventions alone or combined with nutrition interventions reduced diarrhoea or growth faltering. METHODS: The WASH Benefits Bangladesh cluster-randomised trial enrolled pregnant women from villages in rural Bangladesh and evaluated outcomes at 1-year and 2-years' fo…
The association between women's sanitation experiences and mental health
Emerging qualitative research suggests women's sanitation experiences may impact mental health. However, specific associations remain unclear. We aimed to determine if sanitation access and sanitation experiences were associated with mental health among women in rural Odisha, India. Using a cross-sectional design, we evaluated the association between sanitation access and sanitation experiences and selected mental health outcomes. Data were colle…
The drinking water response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, including the role of household water treatment
Purpose To document the drinking water component of the humanitarian response to the Great Sumatra‐Andaman earthquake of December 26, 2004, including a focus on the promotion of household water treatment (HHWT)/safe storage to minimize the spread of diarrhoeal disease. Design/methodology/approach Firsthand accounts of the response effort, interviews, and literature review. Findings The combined efforts to mobilize a drinking water response were t…
Effectiveness of a rural sanitation programme on diarrhoea, soil-transmitted helminth infection, and child malnutrition in Odisha, India
BACKGROUND: A third of the 2·5 billion people worldwide without access to improved sanitation live in India, as do two-thirds of the 1·1 billion practising open defecation and a quarter of the 1·5 million who die annually from diarrhoeal diseases. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a rural sanitation intervention, within the context of the Government of India's Total Sanitation Campaign, to prevent diarrhoea, soil-transmitted helminth infect…
Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low‐ and middle‐income settings
Socio-cultural and behavioural factors constraining latrine adoption in rural coastal Odisha
Findings show that providing infrastructure does not ensure use when there are significant and culturally engrained behavioural barriers to using latrines. Future sanitation programmes in rural India need to focus on understanding and addressing these behavioural barriers
Process evaluation and assessment of use of a large scale water filter and cookstove program in Rwanda
This program suggests that free distribution is not a determinant of low adoption. It is plausible that continued engagement in households, enabled by Ministry of Health support and carbon financed revenue, contributed to high adoption rates. Overall, the program was able to demonstrate a privately financed, public health intervention can achieve high levels of initial adoption and usage of household level water filtration and improved cookstoves…
Assessing Women’s Negative Sanitation Experiences and Concerns
Lack of access to acceptable sanitation facilities can expose individuals, particularly women, to physical, social, and mental health risks. While some of the challenges have been documented, standard metrics are needed to determine the extent to which women have urination- and defecation-related concerns and negative experiences. Such metrics also are needed to assess the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate them. We developed a sanitation…
Processes and challenges of community mobilisation for latrine promotion under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in rural Odisha, India
In this setting, the Government of India's NBA programme to increase rural sanitation coverage and use is hampered by political, programmatic, logistical and socio-structural constraints. Sanitation demand generation was difficult for local implementing NGOs as village populations had lost trust in organisations due to previous indications of fraud. Agencies or organisations implementing sanitation campaigns and conducting sanitation promotions n…
Advantages and limitations for users of double pit pour-flush latrines
Double pit pour-flush latrines are a long-term improved sanitation option that offers users several important advantages over single pit pour-flush latrines like in rural Bangladesh which can also be used in areas with high water table. Further research can provide an understanding of the comparative health impacts and effectiveness of the model in preventing human excreta from entering the environment
User preferences and willingness to pay for safe drinking water
Effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on diarrhoea and child growth in rural Kenya
Background Poor nutrition and exposure to faecal contamination are associated with diarrhoea and growth faltering, both of which have long-term consequences for child health. We aimed to assess whether water, sanitation, handwashing, and nutrition interventions reduced diarrhoea or growth faltering. Methods The WASH Benefits cluster-randomised trial enrolled pregnant women from villages in rural Kenya and evaluated outcomes at 1 year and 2 years …
Impact of drinking water, sanitation and handwashing with soap on childhood diarrhoeal disease
Effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on diarrhoea and child growth in rural Bangladesh
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea and growth faltering in early childhood are associated with subsequent adverse outcomes. We aimed to assess whether water quality, sanitation, and handwashing interventions alone or combined with nutrition interventions reduced diarrhoea or growth faltering. METHODS: The WASH Benefits Bangladesh cluster-randomised trial enrolled pregnant women from villages in rural Bangladesh and evaluated outcomes at 1-year and 2-years' fo…
The association between women's sanitation experiences and mental health
Emerging qualitative research suggests women's sanitation experiences may impact mental health. However, specific associations remain unclear. We aimed to determine if sanitation access and sanitation experiences were associated with mental health among women in rural Odisha, India. Using a cross-sectional design, we evaluated the association between sanitation access and sanitation experiences and selected mental health outcomes. Data were colle…
Collective Efficacy
Impact evaluations of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions have demonstrated lower than expected health gains, in some cases due to low uptake and sustained adoption of interventions at a community level. These findings represent common challenges for public health and development programmes relying on collective action. One possible explanation may be low collective efficacy (CE)-perceptions regarding a group's ability to execute actions…
Exploring the relationship between sanitation and mental and social well-being
The implications of three major new trials for the effect of water, sanitation and hygiene on childhood diarrhea and stunting
BACKGROUND: Three large new trials of unprecedented scale and cost, which included novel factorial designs, have found no effect of basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions on childhood stunting, and only mixed effects on childhood diarrhea. Arriving at the inception of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, and the bold new target of safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030, these results warrant t…
Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene for selected adverse health outcomes
BACKGROUND: To develop updated estimates in response to new exposure and exposure-response data of the burden of diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malnutrition, schistosomiasis, malaria, soil-transmitted helminth infections and trachoma from exposure to inadequate drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene behaviours (WASH) with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: For each of the analysed diseases, exposure levels with both suffici…
Impact of a school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene intervention on school absence, diarrhea, respiratory infection, and soil-transmitted helminths
BACKGROUND: Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools is promoted by development agencies as a modality to improve school attendance by reducing illness. Despite biological plausibility, the few rigorous studies that have assessed the effect of WASH in schools (WinS) interventions on pupil health and school attendance have reported mixed impacts. We evaluated the impact of the Laos Basic Education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme -…
Sanitation and Collective Efficacy in Rural Cambodia
Community-level action may be required to achieve the levels of sanitation uptake necessary for health gains. Evidence suggests that collective action is influenced by collective efficacy (CE)-a group's belief in its abilities to organize and execute action to achieve common goals. The extent to which it is necessary to fully contextualize existing CE measurement tools, in order to conduct meaningful assessments of the factors influencing CE perc…
Modeling the Impact of an Indoor Air Filter on Air Pollution Exposure Reduction and Associated Mortality in Urban Delhi Household
Indoor exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) is a prominent health concern. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of long-term use of indoor air filters for reduction of PM 2.5 exposure and associated decrease in adverse health impacts in urban India. We conducted 20 simulations of yearlong personal exposure to PM 2.5 in urban Delhi using the National Institute of Standards and Technology's CONTAM program (NIST, Gaithersbur…
Groundwater Chemistry and Blood Pressure
Background : We assessed the association of groundwater chemicals with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Methods: Blood pressure data for ≥35-year-olds were from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey in 2011. Groundwater chemicals in 3534 well water samples from Bangladesh were measured by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in 1998-1999. Participants who reported groundwater as their primary source of drink…
A cluster-randomized multi-level intervention to increase latrine use and safe disposal of child feces in rural Odisha, India
This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03274245
Assessing Women’s Menstruation Concerns and Experiences in Rural India
Qualitative research has documented menstruator's challenges, particularly in water and sanitation poor environments, but quantitative assessment is limited. We created and validated a culturally-grounded measure of Menstrual Insecurity to assess women's menstruation-related concerns and negative experiences. With cross-sectional data from 878 menstruating women in rural Odisha, India, we carried out Exploratory (EFA) and Confirmatory (CFA) Facto…
Child Salivary SIgA and Its Relationship to Enteric Infections and EED Biomarkers in Maputo, Mozambique
Characterizing child immunological responses to enteric infections with antibody detection in serum can be challenging in resource-constrained field settings, because sample collection requires trained individuals and its invasive procedure may lead to low response rates, especially among children. Saliva may present a promising non-invasive alternative. The objectives of this research were to compare salivary antibody levels in children to enter…
Exposure contrasts associated with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) intervention at potential field sites for the multi-country household air pollution intervention network (Hapin) trial in India
ClinicalTrials.Gov. NCT02944682 ; Prospectively registered on October 17, 2016
Medicine (33 works) · Environmental health (29 works) · Child Nutrition and Water Access (24 works) · Sanitation (21 works) · Nursing (12 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (10 works) · Hygiene (10 works) · Energy and Environment Impacts (9 works) · Geography (9 works) · Latrine (9 works)