Personal Hygiene Attitude Among School Students - A Comparative Introspection

Abstract

Health and hygiene is an essential part of our everyday life. Someone rightly quoted it that ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. Cleanliness is imperativein all human communities. In fact, a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Entailing the last statement, the World Health Organization (WHO,2006) defined health as “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. It isan essential activity that everyone must perform to have a healthy living standard for themselves and others. Sometimes it is believed thatfamilies and schools are the primary agents for the inculcation of healthy habits among children. Inevitably, significant adults play a vital role inpassing on good personal hygiene practice to the younger generation. The formidable years happen to be the most pronounced time periodin imbibing the good hygiene habits showcased by the adults to the young ones. And thereof the cultivation of proper health and hygienebecomes an integral part in human lives. Despite of conscious hygiene habit formation, acts of negligence and oblivious behaviour are foundto be quite common among people. Inadvertent hygiene errors are also quite observed quite frequently among students. In spite of teachingand disciplining students about good habit formations, students forget some and prohibit hygiene taboos. The present study targets to findout the status of personal hygiene among students studying at the higher secondary level of formal school education.Objective: The study focussed on finding out the differences in personal hygiene among students in relation to gender, locality of the schools(urban and rural) and streams of study.Hypotheses: Based on the objectives, null hypotheses were constructed.Tools: Standardised questionnaire was used to collect data.Data collection: Random simple sampling method was employed to pool information from the participants:Sample: the sample size for the present study was 248(n=248).Statistics: Differential and Inferential statistics were used as per suitability.