Study on knowledge, attitude and practice of personal hygiene among selected rural people

Abstract

Descriptive type of Cross sectional study conducted in Jaintapur Upazila from the period of October-December 2017 to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of personal hygiene among selected rural people with a sample size of 308 using a semi-structured questionnaire following purposive sampling technique. Out of 308 respondents about three fourth of respondents were Muslims, 55.8% were male. More than half were in the age group 15-35 years, 85.7% were married, 44.5% were Illiterates. 30.4% were house wife and only 6% had their monthly income ≥Tk. 30,000. Almost 286(92.8%) respondents had knowledge on importance of hand washing, majority 244(79.2%) had knowledge about transmission of Communicable disease by Hand contamination. Regarding factors causes discouraging from hand washing about 123(39.9%) respondents forget to wash, 74(24%) feel Shortage of time and 70(22.8%) not known. Only 13% of respondents wore ring during cooking and food handling. Almost 290(94.2%) washed hand before eating, 298(96.8%) washed their hand after coming back from the toilet and 301(97.7%) respondents had habit of Cutting Nail. Majority of them 234 (78.5%) used soap for hand washing after coming back from latrine, only 1(0.3%) used liquid hand wash and others respectively. About (84.1%) discussed about hand washing with their children and family members and 238(77.3%) respondent’s children’s habit of hand washing of children before taking food & after toilet. More than half of respondents got information from Radio and Television, 79(25.6%) from health educator, 17(5.5%) from others. Awareness of general people about hand washing and its practices should be increased within earliest possible time through behavior Change Communication (BCC) programme of GO/NGO partnership should be planned with more emphasis on hand washing.