Published on June 2020 | Public Health

Evaluation of Hand Washing Knowledge, Practices, and Skills among Students of Thar Desert Schools

Introduction – Proper Hand-washing is an integral component in attaining the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) goals. Rural areas are presumed to have low-grade hygienic practices, particularly ‘Hand-washing'. This study is aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding 'Hand-washing' among school going children of the Village Jhadol, District - Udaipur, Rajasthan. Methodology – A questionnaire based study was conducted in the month of Feb. 2020 in the rural areas of Jhadol, Rajasthan. We selected 380 school going children from different schools between the age group 12-17 years were selected. A pre-tested questionnaire for data collection .The data entry and statistical analysis was done using MS-Excel (Office 2013 version) and Epi-Info Version 7.1. Results – Total 380 participants with mean age of 14.2 years were surveyed in this study out of which 41.05% of them were females. Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Hand-washing awareness, opinions and techniques were 66.94%, 53.51%and 56.65% respectively. Despite having the knowledge about the correct hand-washing technique, 43.33% students were still using soil as the cleansing agent. Also, awareness about hand-washing after playing outside, touching sick people and animals was low at only 35.52%, 23.68% and 36.57% correspondingly. Awareness levels among girls was found to be more than boys. Conclusion – Hand-washing is an important aspect of addressing many public health issues effectively. To attain the goals of SBA, this study suggests the need for more health education and promotion activities in the schools of rural areas of India.