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Abstract

Infant mortality remains a worrying public health issue, particularly in areas with poor access to drinking water and sanitation. In 2020, Papua Province recorded an infant mortality rate of 49.04 per 1,000 live births and West Papua 47.23. These figures are far above the national average. This study aims to determine the relationship between access to safe drinking water and infant mortality rates in provinces in Indonesia. This study used an ecological design with secondary data from the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey and the 2023 Directorate of Public Health. The analysis was descriptive and followed by a Spearman correlation test. The results showed a significant relationship between lack of access to safe drinking water and high infant mortality (r = –0.448; p = 0.005). Meanwhile, population density, availability of essential medicines at community health centers, and village status as a no-open defecation village did not show a significant relationship. It can be concluded that limited access to safe drinking water is associated with increasing infant mortality rates in Indonesia. These findings emphasize the importance of increasing access to clean water as an effort to reduce infant mortality in Indonesia.

References

  1. Deviany, S., Yuniar, R. R., & Widiastuti, T. (2022). Factors Influencing Neonatal and Child Mortality in Indonesia: A Systematic Review. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 53(2), 225-235. https://doi.org/10.1100/jtmph.2022.053

  2. Hasanah, S., Ibrahim, I. and Purnama, S. (2023) ‘Hubungan akses sanitasi dasar dan kualitas air minum dengan kejadian diare pada balita di Puskesmas Ampana Barat’, Jurnal Kesehatan Terpadu, 4(2), pp. 273–281. https://journal.universitaspahlawan.ac.id/index.php/jkt/article/view/12720?

  3. Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia. Profil Kesehatan Indonesia 2023 [Internet]. Jakarta: Kementerian Kesehatan RI; 2024 [cited 2025 Jan 16]. Available from: https://www.kemkes.go.id

  4. Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia. Survei Kesehatan Indonesia (SKI) 2023 [Internet]. Jakarta: Kementerian Kesehatan RI; 2024 [cited 2025 Jan 16]. Available from: https://www.kemkes.go.id

  5. Sri Irianti & Puguh Prasetyoputra (2015). Environmental, demographic, and socio-economic correlates of access to improved sanitation: Empirical evidence from Papua and West Papua provinces. Jurnal Kependudukan Indonesia, 10(1), 11-26. Available at: https://ejournal.brin.go.id/jki/article/view/11254/8811 [Accessed: 14 October 2025]

  6. UNICEF. (2025). Triple Threat WASH: The state of the world’s children 2025. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/media/137206/file/triple-threat-wash-EN.pdf [Accessed: 14 October 2025].

  7. World Health Organization (2024). Child Mortality. [online] www.who.int. Available at: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/sdg-target-3_2-newborn-and-child-mortality.

  8. Wolf, J., et al. (2023). Burden of disease attributable to unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene in domestic settings: a global analysis for selected adverse health outcomes. Lancet (London, England), 401(10393), 2060–2071. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00458-0

Bahasa Abstract

Infant mortality remains a worrying public health issue, particularly in areas with poor access to drinking water and sanitation. In 2020, Papua Province recorded an infant mortality rate of 49.04 per 1,000 live births and West Papua 47.23. These figures are far above the national average. This study aims to determine the relationship between access to safe drinking water and infant mortality rates in provinces in Indonesia. This study used an ecological design with secondary data from the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey and the 2023 Directorate of Public Health. The analysis was descriptive and followed by a Spearman correlation test. The results showed a significant relationship between lack of access to safe drinking water and high infant mortality (r = –0.448; p = 0.005). Meanwhile, population density, availability of essential medicines at community health centers, and village status as a no-open defecation village did not show a significant relationship. It can be concluded that limited access to safe drinking water is associated with increasing infant mortality rates in Indonesia. These findings emphasize the importance of increasing access to clean water as an effort to reduce infant mortality in Indonesia.

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