Effect of Hand Washing Education on Primary School Pupils in Nkanu West Local Government Area (Lga) of Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study explored the effectiveness of hand washing (hw) education on primary school pupils in Nkanu West LGA of Enugu state. Comparison group pretest-posttestdesign was utilized to execute the study. The population for the study was 9746 pupils. The samplefor the study was 48 pupils made up of 23 and 25 intact primary 5 classes from two separate schools. The instrument utilized for data collection was a 10-item hw achievement multiple-choice test (HaWaT) adapted from hw testdeveloped by Massachusetts Department of Public Health Division of Epidemiology and Immunization-MDPHDEI (2000). The HaWaT had sections A and B that sought data on knowledge and skills of hw respectively. The face and content validity of the instrument was established through the judgment of three expertsin health education, psychology and measurement/evaluation. The instrument was pilot tested in a school in the LGA that was different from the schools selected for this study using a test-retest method. The resultant data were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and it yielded a reliability coefficient of .78. Kuder-Richardson formula 20 was utilized to determine its internal consistency and it yielded a reliability index of .71. Data that were generated from the pre and posttest were analyzed using SPSS version 21. Descriptive statistics of mean (x ) and standard deviation (SD) were used to answer the research questions while ANOVA was used to verify the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The majorfindingsfrom the study showed that the mean achievement gain on: knowledge of hw of the intervention group (x =10.87%) was higher than the comparison group (x =.08%); skills of hw of the intervention group (x =12.81%) was greater than the comparison group (x =4.40%). Additionally, the ANOVA test showed that null hypothesis one which stated that there was no significance difference between experimental and comparison group on knowledge of hw was rejected (p value=.001<.05 alpha level).Similarly,null hypothesis two which stated that there was no significance difference between both groups on skills of hw was rejected(p=.001< .05 alpha level). Based on these findings, it was concluded that the hw education was effective. Following from the conclusions a recommendation for the adoption of the health education in primary schools in Nkanu West LGA was made.