Table 2.

Sanitation and hygiene-related behavior during a COVID-19–related lockdown by gender and toilet access, Tamil Nadu, India, May 2020

Behavior of interest	Total (N = 2,044), n (%)	Gender		Toilet access
		Female (N = 954), n (%)	Male (N = 1,090), n (%)	No toilet (N = 589), n %)	Private toilet (N = 1,235), n (%)	Public or community toilet (N = 220), n (%)
Reported open defecation in the past 2 days	647 (32)	342 (36)*	305 (28)	495 (84)	54 (4.4)	98 (45)
Respondent or a family member left the house for open defecation in the past 7 days	403 (20)†	235 (25)	168 (16)	344 (58)	25 (2.0)	34 (16)
Respondent or a family member left the house to use a toilet in the past 7 days	157 (7.7)	89 (9.3)	68 (6.2)	33 (5.6)	20 (1.6)	104 (47)

Changes in behaviors
Respondent continued using a private toilet	1,130 (56)	457 (48)	673 (62)	7 (1.2)‡	1,117 (91)	6 (2.7)
Continued open defecation	542 (27)	294 (30)	248 (23)	490 (83)	19 (1.5)	33 (15)
Continued using a public/community toilet	214 (11)	84 (7.7)	130 (14)	52 (8.8)§	10 (0.8)	152 (69)
Started using a private toilet	80 (3.9)	60 (2.6)	30 (3.1)	0	80 (6.5)	0
Started using a public toilet	48 (2.4)	15 (1.4)	33 (3.5)	12 (2.0)	8 (0.7)	28 (13)
Started open defecation	30 (1.5)	5 (0.5)	22 (2.0)	28 (4.8)	1 (0.1)	1 (0.5)
Increased frequency of cleaning toilets	858 (42)	373 (39)	485 (45)	0	858 (70)	0
Increased washing hands with soap and water	1,723 (85)	806 (85)	917 (84)	461 (78)	1,074 (87)	188 (86)

Data are n (%).

^*Although men were less likely to report open defecation in the past 2 days, the difference was not significant once the access to toilet facilities was accounted for.

^†Asked as an open-ended question, which may have led to fewer relevant responses.

^‡May indicate use of a private toilet owned by someone else.

^§Indicates misclassified respondents, who had access to public toilets despite reporting that they did not have access to any toilet.