KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF HEALTH PROTECTIVE MEASURES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNERS IN BENIN CITY, NIGERIA

Abstract

A healthy lifestyle is desired by everybody, and this involves health-promoting and health-protecting behaviours that are complementary. Health protective behaviours must be learned early in life and particularly in preparation to face pandemics. Children must learn them as part of the socialization process in school and at home to prevent the transmission of diseases. This study explored the knowledge and practices of health-protective behaviours by early childhood learners. The population for this study was learners in early childhood schools in Benin City, Nigeria. A sample of 200 early childhood learners whose parents consented was selected purposively from early childhood schools. An interview schedule that was validated with a reliability of .83 was used in collecting data by the researchers. The data collected was analysed using frequencies, percentages and Pearson product-moment correlation. More than 60% of the learners had knowledge of washing hands regularly, using of hand sanitizers, covering their mouth with elbow when coughing among others as health protective measures which are part of non-pharmaceutical initiatives. Furthermore, more than 50% of the learners practice protective measures. Overall, the level of knowledge and practice of the measures was encouraging. Schools should continue to teach learners non-pharmaceutical initiatives in preparation for any outbreak of pandemics; the practice of such initiatives should also be enforced.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0005/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>