IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v291y2021ics0277953621008224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The embodiment of water insecurity: Injuries and chronic stress in lowland Bolivia

Author

Listed:
  • Rosinger, Asher Y.
  • Bethancourt, Hilary J.
  • Young, Sera L.
  • Schultz, Alan F.

Abstract

Water is critical to health and wellbeing. Studies have theorized that problems with water can become embodied, yet few studies have quantified this. Therefore, we first sought to understand the lowland Bolivian water environment of Tsimane’ forager-horticulturalists. We assessed the water environment holistically, using objective measures of water quality and water services (Joint Monitoring Programme's drinking water services ladder) and subjective measures, including perceived water safety and water insecurity experiences [Household Water Insecurity Experiences Scale (HWISE)]. We tested how water service levels, perceived water safety, and water fetching frequency were associated with HWISE scores using Tobit regression models among 270 households. We then tested if and how water becomes embodied via self-reported water-related injury and a chronic stress biomarker, hair cortisol concentration (HCC). Results demonstrated that, compared with households using surface water, households with basic water services had HWISE scores 1.59-pts lower (SE = 0.29; P < 0.001). Ingestion of water perceived to be “bad” and more daily water-fetching trips were associated with higher HWISE scores. Twenty percent of households reported prior water-related injuries, with women most commonly injured. In logistic regressions, each point higher HWISE score was associated with 28% (95%CI:1.16–1.41; P < 0.001) higher odds of injury. Basic water services compared to surface water was associated with 48% lower odds (OR = 0.52; 95%CI:0.33–0.82; P = 0.005) of injury. Finally, using linear regressions among 332 adults, HWISE scores were not associated with HCC. Past water-related injury was associated with higher HCC (Beta = 0.31; SE = 0.09; P = 0.029) among women, but not men. Relying on unimproved water services compared to surface was associated with 46.2% higher HCC for women (Beta=0.38; SE=0.14; P=0.048) and 55.3% higher HCC for men (Beta=0.44; SE=0.15; P=0.044), respectively. Overall, our findings demonstrate that water insecurity can become embodied through water-related injuries and elevated HCC. Improving water service levels through an equity lens may help ameliorate water insecurity and its accompanying negative health effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosinger, Asher Y. & Bethancourt, Hilary J. & Young, Sera L. & Schultz, Alan F., 2021. "The embodiment of water insecurity: Injuries and chronic stress in lowland Bolivia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:291:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621008224
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114490
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621008224
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114490?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Workman, Cassandra L. & Ureksoy, Heather, 2017. "Water insecurity in a syndemic context: Understanding the psycho-emotional stress of water insecurity in Lesotho, Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 52-60.
    2. Worthman, Carol M. & Kohrt, Brandon, 2005. "Receding horizons of health: biocultural approaches to public health paradoxes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 861-878, August.
    3. Tallman, Paula Skye, 2016. "The Index of Vulnerability: An anthropological method linking social-ecological systems to mental and physical health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 68-78.
    4. Rosinger, Asher Y., 2018. "Household water insecurity after a historic flood: Diarrhea and dehydration in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 192-202.
    5. Sorenson, Susan B. & Morssink, Christiaan & Campos, Paola Abril, 2011. "Safe access to safe water in low income countries: Water fetching in current times," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(9), pages 1522-1526, May.
    6. Thomas McDade & Sharon Williams & J. Snodgrass, 2007. "What a drop can do: Dried blood spots as a minimally invasive method for integrating biomarkers into population-based research," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(4), pages 899-925, November.
    7. Goutam Konapala & Ashok K. Mishra & Yoshihide Wada & Michael E. Mann, 2020. "Climate change will affect global water availability through compounding changes in seasonal precipitation and evaporation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Stevenson, Edward G.J. & Greene, Leslie E. & Maes, Kenneth C. & Ambelu, Argaw & Tesfaye, Yihenew Alemu & Rheingans, Richard & Hadley, Craig, 2012. "Water insecurity in 3 dimensions: An anthropological perspective on water and women's psychosocial distress in Ethiopia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 392-400.
    9. Wutich, Amber & Ragsdale, Kathleen, 2008. "Water insecurity and emotional distress: Coping with supply, access, and seasonal variability of water in a Bolivian squatter settlement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2116-2125, December.
    10. Paula Skye Tallman, 2019. "Water insecurity and mental health in the Amazon: Economic and ecological drivers of distress," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 304-316, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adams, Ellis Adjei & Byrns, Sydney & Kumwenda, Save & Quilliam, Richard & Mkandawire, Theresa & Price, Heather, 2022. "Water journeys: Household water insecurity, health risks, and embodiment in slums and informal settlements," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    2. Duignan, Sarah & Moffat, Tina & Martin-Hill, Dawn, 2022. "Be like the running water: Assessing gendered and age-based water insecurity experiences with Six Nations First Nation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brewis, Alexandra & Choudhary, Neetu & Wutich, Amber, 2019. "Household water insecurity may influence common mental disorders directly and indirectly through multiple pathways: Evidence from Haiti," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Young, Sera L., 2021. "Viewpoint: The measurement of water access and use is key for more effective food and nutrition policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    3. Rosinger, Asher Y., 2018. "Household water insecurity after a historic flood: Diarrhea and dehydration in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 192-202.
    4. Mushavi, Rumbidzai C. & Burns, Bridget F.O. & Kakuhikire, Bernard & Owembabazi, Moran & Vořechovská, Dagmar & McDonough, Amy Q. & Cooper-Vince, Christine E. & Baguma, Charles & Rasmussen, Justin D. & , 2020. "“When you have no water, it means you have no peace”: A mixed-methods, whole-population study of water insecurity and depression in rural Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    5. Winter, James C. & Darmstadt, Gary L. & Davis, Jennifer, 2021. "The role of piped water supplies in advancing health, economic development, and gender equality in rural communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    6. Maxfield, Amanda, 2020. "Testing the theoretical similarities between food and water insecurity: Buffering hypothesis and effects on mental wellbeing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    7. Priscila Neves-Silva & Juliana Aurora de Oliveira Lopes & Léo Heller, 2020. "The right to water: Impact on the quality of life of rural workers in a settlement of the Landless Workers Movement, Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, July.
    8. Godfred O Boateng & Shalean M Collins & Patrick Mbullo & Pauline Wekesa & Maricianah Onono & Torsten B Neilands & Sera L Young, 2018. "A novel household water insecurity scale: Procedures and psychometric analysis among postpartum women in western Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-28, June.
    9. Bisung, Elijah & Elliott, Susan J., 2018. "Improvement in access to safe water, household water insecurity, and time savings: A cross-sectional retrospective study in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1-8.
    10. Achore, Meshack & Bisung, Elijah, 2022. "Experiences of inequalities in access to safe water and psycho-emotional distress in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    11. Farooq Ahmed & Muhammad Shahid & Yang Cao & Madeeha Gohar Qureshi & Sidra Zia & Saireen Fatima & Jing Guo, 2021. "A Qualitative Exploration in Causes of Water Insecurity Experiences, and Gender and Nutritional Consequences in South-Punjab, Pakistan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-14, November.
    12. Craig Hadley & Matthew C. Freeman, 2016. "Assessing reliability, change after intervention, and performance of a water insecurity scale in rural Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 855-864, August.
    13. Boateng, Godfred O. & Workman, Cassandra L. & Miller, Joshua D. & Onono, Maricianah & Neilands, Torsten B. & Young, Sera L., 2022. "The syndemic effects of food insecurity, water insecurity, and HIV on depressive symptomatology among Kenyan women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    14. Joseph Kangmennaang & Elijah Bisung & Susan J. Elliott, 2020. "‘We Are Drinking Diseases’: Perception of Water Insecurity and Emotional Distress in Urban Slums in Accra, Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-17, January.
    15. Maes, Kenneth & Closser, Svea & Tesfaye, Yihenew & Abesha, Roza, 2019. "Psychosocial distress among unpaid community health workers in rural Ethiopia: Comparing leaders in Ethiopia's Women's Development Army to their peers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 138-146.
    16. Sahoo, Krushna Chandra & Hulland, Kristyna R.S. & Caruso, Bethany A. & Swain, Rojalin & Freeman, Matthew C. & Panigrahi, Pinaki & Dreibelbis, Robert, 2015. "Sanitation-related psychosocial stress: A grounded theory study of women across the life-course in Odisha, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 80-89.
    17. Tallman, Paula Skye, 2016. "The Index of Vulnerability: An anthropological method linking social-ecological systems to mental and physical health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 68-78.
    18. Boateng, Godfred O. & Balogun, Mobolanle R. & Dada, Festus O. & Armah, Frederick A., 2020. "Household energy insecurity: dimensions and consequences for women, infants and children in low- and middle-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    19. Kumar, Tanu & Post, Alison E. & Ray, Isha, 2018. "Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 149-160.
    20. Workman, Cassandra L. & Ureksoy, Heather, 2017. "Water insecurity in a syndemic context: Understanding the psycho-emotional stress of water insecurity in Lesotho, Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 52-60.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:291:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621008224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.