Assessment of hand washing knowledge and practice among secondary school students in Aba, Abia State

Abstract

Background: Hand washing has been identified as the simplest and the most cost effective method of preventing most common infections that cause mortality and morbidity in human populations. Hand washing practices however vary from place to place and people to people. Thus the aim of this project is to assess the hand washing practices amongst secondary school children in Aba, Abia state.

Method: This was a cross sectional descriptive study on hand washing practices among secondary school children conducted between March and April 2018. Pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection and the analysis was subsequently done using IBM SPSS version 20.

Results: Four hundred students participated in this study with a mean age of 15.9±1.4 years and a male to female ratio of 1:1.2. All the students had heard of hand washing and their source was mostly from their parents (77.5%), followed by teachers (14.5%). Nearly all the students (98%) are aware that some illnesses could result from poor hand hygiene. 365 (24.8%) of the respondents admitted washing hands before meals, 16.5% after defecating and 15.8% after playing. While 78.7% of the students had good knowledge, only 34.5% of them had good practice of it. Class level and father’s educational status were likely predictors of practice of hand washing.

Conclusions: The study concluded that secondary school students in Aba, Abia State had good knowledge of hand washing. Practice of hand washing was largely influenced by father’s educational status and class level of the students. We therefore recommend that adequate hand washing facilities be provided in secondary schools in the country. Also schools should incorporate sessions for demonstration of proper hand hygiene and a system of rewarding students who excel in the practice.

Keywords: Hand washing, secondary school, knowledge, practices, assessment