Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Personal Hygiene Among School Children in Assendabo, Ethiopia

Communicable diseases within populations can often be reduced through the single act of handwashing. Unfortunately many developing countries are unable to provide regular handwashing opportunities to their people due to lack of resources. A cross sectional study was conducted in Assendabo, Ethiopia in collaboration with Jimma University during January 2011 to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of personal hygiene of local school children of one primary and one junior secondary school. The aim of this pilot study was to obtain baseline information of local hygiene practices and assess the association between demographic variables (level of parents' education, level of personal education, participant's age and gender) and attitudes as to when hand washing is appropriate, and handwashing behavior. With a sample size of 345 participants, those in the 10-13 year old range washed their hands the most often; 90% of the participants washed their hands before a meal, only 70% of would wash after defecation and 32% after urination. A combination of religious practices and cultural factors may account for the older age group's improved handwashing. The main obstacles to washing hands more often were lack of water and soap and the knowledge of appropriate scenarios for hand washing. Challenges of the study included language barrier and interpretation of questionnaire by data collectors and participants. The results of this study will be useful to design future studies, target public health education, and efforts to improve resources for handwashing with the goal of preventing the spread of infectious illnesses and diseases.