Personal hygiene:Knowledge, attitude, and practice among higher primary school children in Urban Bengaluru, India

Abstract

Good hygiene practices is crucial to avoid the spread of communicable diseases, which can be taught to children from an early age. Children, especially school-going ones, tend to neglect basic personal hygiene and thus require specific attention to develop good habits. The aim of this study is to assess the personal hygiene knowledge, attitude, and practice of school children, as well as to examine the correlation between these three factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with students in grades six to eight attending higher primary schools. Convenience sampling was used to select the schools, while purposive sampling was employed to select the potential participants. To assess the students' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding personal hygiene, a validated KAP questionnaire was used. The data collected were analysed using statistical tests such as Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman's correlation, as well as descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage. Results: The study found that, almost half of the students (49.07%) displayed good knowledge regarding personal hygiene, while approximately (58.33%) held a positive attitude and (59.26%) had moderate practice regarding personal hygiene. The female students showed the highest median scores in terms of knowledge, attitude, and practice of personal hygiene. Furthermore, the study found that students' knowledge, attitude, and practice of personal hygiene increased as they progressed from sixth to eighth grade. Conclusion: The children displayed a moderate level of knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding personal hygiene and females demonstrating better personal hygiene than males.