Water consumption habits of a south-western Ontario community

A cross-sectional telephone survey (n=2,332) was performed to better understand the drinking water consumption patterns among residents in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. We investigated the daily volume of water consumed (including tap and bottled) and factors related to that consumption. In addition, we investigated the daily volume of cold tap water consumed by those respondents who consumed no bottled water and the factors that influence this consumption. Among study respondents, 51% exclusively drank tap water, 34% exclusively drank bottled water and 14.5% drank both, with 10 to 75% of all cold water consumed in the previous day being bottled. The mean volume of water consumed in a day (including bottled and tap water) was 1.39 l. Among those who reported to exclusively consume tap water, the mean daily volume of tap water consumed was 1.45 l. The daily amount of cold water consumed in a day was lower for older respondents, more markedly for men than women. More educated respondents consumed more water during the day. Roughly 45% of households reported that they used a carbon filter to treat their water. Roughly 5% of respondents used advanced home treatment devices, including ultraviolet light, reverse osmosis, ozonation or distillation

Modified case-control study of cryptosporidiosis (using non-Cryptosporidium-infected enteric cases as controls) in a community setting

Data from the first sentinel site (Waterloo Region, Ontario) of the Canadian Integrated Enteric Disease Surveillance System (C-EnterNet) were used in a secondary-based case-control study of laboratory-confirmed Cryptosporidium infections to study the role of various exposure factors. The incidence of cryptosporidiosis in Waterloo Region was almost double both the provincial and national rates. Persons ill with one of nine other enteric infections (amoebiasis, campylobacteriosis, cyclosporiasis, giardiasis, listeriosis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, verotoxigenic E. coli infections, yersiniosis) captured by the surveillance system were used as the control group. Of 1204 cases of enteric illness in the sentinel area between April 2005 and December 2007, 36 cases and 803 controls were selected after excluding outbreak and international travel-related cases. Univariable analyses (Pearson x2 and Fisher’s exact tests) and multivariable logistic regression were performed. Results of the multivariable analysis found that cryptosporidiosis was associated with swimming in a lake or river (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.2–7.4), drinking municipal water (a potential surrogate for urban respondents vs. rural) (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.04–5.7), and having a family member with a diarrhoeal illness (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.3–6.4)