Abstract
Aims: The study aims to assess the level of awareness regarding Hand hygiene among the population in urban and rural areas of South India.
 Study Design: A web based cross sectional survey.
 Place and Duration of Study: An online study was conducted among public of South India for a period of 6 months.
 Methodology: The data was collected through online mode by providing google link to fill questionnaire form through various social media platforms. The questionnaire consists of demographic details, knowledge and practice related questions. SPSS was used to interpret data and chi-square test, independent T test, backward multiple regression analysis was done.
 Results: From the collected data a total of 1178 responses were collected (urban:726, rural:452). From independent T test the knowledge mean score of HH was: 10.07±2.136 for urban population and 9.79±2.138 for rural population. By this urban population has more knowledge than rural population. From backward multiple regression analysis of Knowledge score, the findings shown that the urban male residents with 2 members household residing in Tamilnadu have preferably more knowledge than others when compared with demographic details. From the independent T test the HH practice mean score was 11.25±1.991 for urban residents and 10.77±2.280 for rural residents. From the Backward multiple regression analysis of Practice score, the findings shown that most parsimonious combination of region (rural, urban), age group (10-30 years, 30-60 years and >60 years), gender(female, male), state and UT (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andaman and nicobar, Puducherry, Lakshadweep), household (2, 3, 4, >4 members), education level (10 and below 10, intermediate, UG, PG, Ph. D) in predicting the practice score.
 Conclusion: The study results concluded that urban residents have preferably more knowledge than rural residents. Creative campaigns and awareness programs should be conducted to attain persistent improvement in HH practices.
Highlights
Hygiene is practiced for ages and is considered the central element in cultural and religious customs
The knowledge score among rural and urban population is differentiated by using independent T test
The majority of the studies on hand hygiene were majorly conducted in Health care workers, Hospital staff, and specific groups, but in our study respondents were not restricted to a single group and focused on the general public of South India regarding their knowledge and practices on Hand hygiene and a majority of studies concentrated more on handwashing procedures but in the current study we focused on handwashing as well as hand drying techniques
Summary
Hygiene is practiced for ages and is considered the central element in cultural and religious customs. The relation between hand hygiene and health was first made less than two centuries ago [1]. Food-borne outbreaks of diseases caused by Campylobacter and health-related infections in the 1980s made the United states CDC actively encourage HH [3]. HH is an important, cost-effective, preventive and practical measure to reduce the incidence of infections in clinical and community settings; it is a well-recognized tool for disease prevention [4,5]. As per WHO and UNICEF joint monitoring program report on hygiene interventions, 542 million people in India live without a basic handwashing facility and around 41% of schools have no hygiene services, affecting 900 million children. Two out of five people and half of the schools do not have handwashing facilities with soap and water on-premises
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