PERSONAL HYGIENE AND HEALTHY EATING HABITS AMONG CHILDREN

International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health

Background: Childhood plays a crucial role in moulding an individual personality and also helps in preventing various communicable and non-communicable diseases. Poor health among school children mainly results from lack of knowledge and adoption of unhealthy practices. Therefore, they should be taught regarding importance of personal hygiene in order to maintain good health. The present study was designed to assess the knowledge and practices regarding personal hygiene among primary school children in selected schools of Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample size of 150 primary school children in selected schools of Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India. Students were selected using disproportionate stratified random sampling technique over a period of two and a half months. The assent and consent were taken from the children and their mothers. A self-structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge and practices regarding perso...

IOSR Journals , 2019

Introduction: Personal hygiene and nutrition are important determinant of adolescent health which is generally neglected and early adolescence would be better suited for inculcating healthy habits of personal hygiene and nutrition. Objectives: Objectives of the study were assessing status of personal hygiene and nutrition among early adolescent students, examining relationship between personal hygiene and nutritional status, and to observe status of Healthful school environment. Methodology: It was a descriptive epidemiological study, cross-sectional in design, conducted in April 2017 at Sagore Dutta Free High School, Kamarhati involving 147 early adolescent students of class V to VIII, selected by applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. A pre-designed, pre-tested data collection form was used for collecting data by interview and clinical examination. CDC stature-forage and weight-forage percentiles chart for 2-20 years boys were used. To determine personal hygiene, scoring method was used. Data compilation and analysis was done in excel worksheet in computer. Result: 147 early adolescent students with mean age 12.23 years participated in the study. On composite scoring for overall personal hygiene status, 91.16% students scored good (Score 11-15), 8.84% found average (score 5-10) and no students were found with poor score (score 0-4). 25.85% students were underweight ((BMI<5 th Percentile), 55.78% were normal (BMI 5 th to < 85 th Percentile), 10.88% were at risk of overweight (BMI 85 th to 95 th Percentile) and 7.48% were found overweight (BMI >95 th Percentile). Statistically no significant relationship was found between type of family, type of house, latrine at home, drinking water of the family, parent's occupation and personal hygiene status of students; also no significant relationship found between nutritional status and personal hygiene of the students under study. Other than absence of canteen, separate room for eating and non-supply of midday meal the school is compliant with all other aspects of healthful school environment. Conclusion: Overall the personal hygiene status of the students was satisfactory. Nutritional status, 55.8% students were of normal nutritional status. Based on these findings, students have to be given advice on general hygiene, diet & cleanliness and should be supervised by parents and teachers. School teachers can be given training for creating awareness and supervision.

SUDANESE JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS 2013; Vol 13, Issue No. 1

Good personal hygiene in primary school children could be effective towards preventing infectious diseases. This work examined personal cleanliness of primary school children in Banki based on the following variables: bathing, state of uniforms, hair, nails and oral hygiene. One hundred and ffty primary school children in Banki community were selected using the cluster random sampling method. Analysis of variance was used to compare means and to test for signifcance of data, and coeffcient of correlation to investigate the relationship between cleanliness and age of subjects. There were 87 (58 %) boys and 63 (42 %) girls in a ratio of 1.4:1. Ninety six (64 %) pupils belong to low socioeconomic class. Whereas, 53 (35.3 %) were found within 11- 13 years age group, the overall mean age was 9 years (Standard deviation [SD] was 2.2), 95 CI (7.0 - 11.0) years. Comparing means for the different categories of personal hygiene, there was signifcant difference (F= 61.47, p < 0.0001). General personal cleanliness in our participants improved with age, and a positive signifcant correlation was observed between age and personal cleanliness in (r = 0.971, p = 0.026). In conclusion, signifcant number of primary school pupils in Banki community had good personal hygiene, which was observed to be directly proportional with age. Therefore, all efforts towards quality health education on personal hygiene as a means of primary prevention of illnesses in primary school pupils should be sustained.

Journal of Human Ecology, 2020

INTRODUCTION Undernutrition is a type of malnutrition that is directly related to inadequate dietary intake and infectious diseases. It is influenced by three broad factors: food, health, and care. There are Poor hygiene is one of the indirect causes of undernutrition especially in low-resource settings. Undernutrition has been linked with low academic performance among schoolchildren; however, limited evidence exists on the relationship between personal hygiene and children's academic grades, particularly in local settings. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the association among personal hygiene score (PHS), sex, nutritional status (NS), morbidity profile, and academic grades of schoolchildren. The study randomly selected 85 primary grade school children attending a government elementary school in Pila, Laguna. The PHS of students was assessed using a pre-tested questionnaire; data on socio-demographics, water source, and toilet facilities were obtained from the parents; and anthropometric measurements and academic grades were obtained through secondary sources. Appropriate tools and statistical analyses were applied using 90% level of confidence. Results showed that PHS was significantly associated with sex, with very good PHS observed more frequently among females than males (42.9% vs. 29.6%). Conversely, no significant association was seen between PHS and academic grades, and between academic grades and all three indices of NS. Notably, PHS was significantly associated with some hygiene-related morbidities, particularly cough and cold, head lice, headache, and dental carries. PHS also had a moderate strength of relationship with BMI-forage index (rs value of 0.510), wherein significantly associated hygiene practices include use of soap in handwashing, use of toothbrush with toothpaste, and handwashing after eating. Despite the lack of strong association between PHS and academic grades, personal hygiene should still be given importance in designing school-based interventions aimed towards improving overall health and learning capabilities of primary grade school children.

International Journal of Basic and Clinical Studies (IJBCS) , 2023

Personal hygiene is a fundamental way of protecting oneself from infectious diseases. Hand hygiene, which plays a major role in transmission, is especially crucial in this respect. Schoolage children, who have immature immune systems, are more vulnerable to infections. Moreover, their low level of hygiene awareness makes schools conducive to the spread of infectious diseases and poses a serious public health challenge. One of the essential steps that can be taken to prevent and reduce the incidence of infectious diseases is to ensure hygiene standards in schools as well as hygiene education. Many studies have reported positive outcomes of hygiene education given to both students and academic-administrative staff. In our country, since the early years of the Republic, health services in schools have been implemented and regulated in this context. Besides this education and regulations, it is essential to provide children with an environment where they can practice these skills at school. Nowadays, it is acknowledged that efforts are made to ensure and maintain hygiene standards in schools. However, it is also recognized that there are gaps in these efforts, and it is necessary to increase the inspections of authorized units to address these shortcomings. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic period, efforts in this context continued to grow and the awareness and attitudes of school administrations towards hygiene practices were positively influenced.

Children

Personal hygiene is one of the basic activities in the care of our body. Parents are responsible for their children’s hygiene to prevent infections and keep them healthy. However, children must acquire hygiene habits correctly and independently. This study examines the sociodemographic profile, hygiene habits and knowledge, and level of autonomy of children who are starting to perform their personal care autonomously to identify the areas in which their habits could be improved. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted concerning 125 children aged 8–11 years attending schools in northern Extremadura, Spain. The children were surveyed with the HICORIN® questionnaire and the resulting data were statistically processed with SPSS 22.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). The majority of participating children required help to perform personal hygiene activities. Children in preferential schooling (PS) require less help than children in mainstream schooling (MS) but have less knowledge about...

Introduction: Childhood is period by when human being expected to shape prenatal nutritional deficiencies and foster good health. Children from developing countries including Ethiopia suffer both from sanitary gaps and undernutrition. Though literature depict sanitary problem and nutritional deficits as problems to be focused on separately evidences examining association of the two issues are limited in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the relationship between household sanitation practice and anthropometric status of pre-school children aged 24-59 months old in Hawassa Zuria Woreda, Southern Ethiopia. Method: A community based cross-sectional study design was employed. By using simple random sampling technique 597 child-mothers/caregiver pairs were selected and interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire. Anthropometric statuses were generated using WHO-Anthro. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test. Result: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 245(41%), 134(22.4%) and 79(13.2%), respectively. Household sanitation practices and stunting (X2=4.21 and P-value=0.04), underweight (X2=4.38 and P-value=0.04) and wasting (X2=12.95 and P-value<0.001) were found statistically significantly associated. Conclusion: Prevalence of underweight was lower than the national figure. Proportion of wasted and stunted pre-school children was higher than both the national and regional reports. Household sanitation practice and pre-school children’s nutritional status (Stunting, Wasting and Underweight) were found associated. Per the finding, stakeholders and mothers/caregivers better design strategies to improve household sanitation practice. Further studies can be done focusing cause effect relationship and examining effect of strategies to improve household sanitation practices.

As the famous sayings " Health is wealth " and " children are future of nation " , we started our study to see the awareness about health in children. Hygiene practices and sanitation play most important role in to live healthy life. Hygiene Practices and sanitation are very helpful to create the good working environment as well as the healthy living. So many diseases can be reduced by the Hygiene Practices and sanitation. In this study we tried to assess the knowledge among children towards the hygiene and sanitation.

International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 2019

Undernutrition among school children is a challenge for developing countries like India. Mid Day Meal Programme of India aims at improvement of nutritional status of school going children by providing hot cooked meals on all the working days to children studying in Government primary schools. It also provides an opportunity to inculcate good hygiene practices among children. This study was carried out to assess the magnitude of undernutrition in rural upper primary school children and practices and perceptions of thin (BAZ<-2SD) upper primary school children of rural Vadodara regarding Mid Day Meal and sanitation and hygiene practices. Six government primary schools from rural industrial areas of Vadodara block were selected and children from 5 th to 8 th standard were screened for undernutrition using anthropometry (WHO 2007 growth reference standards). Practices and perceptions regarding MDM, sanitation and hygiene among thin children were studied. Prevalence of underweight, stunting and thinness was 43.7%, 30.7% and 31.8% respectively. Majority of the children (93.8%) were consuming MDM, but only 68.1% were consuming it 5-6 times a week. Although, handwashing, nail hygiene and bathing were perceived to be important practices, there was a gap in awareness regarding importance of these practices. Usage of soap for handwashing in school and cleanliness of nails were not found to be adequately practiced by the children. Incorporating behaviour change communication in MDM as a regular feature can help in improving the compliance as well as to ensure proper hygiene practices among children, and achieve better outcome of the programme.

Food Science and Technology, 2020

Introduction: Evidence shows that 10 to 20% of food-borne outbreaks perceptible in developing countries. The objective of this study was to assess the magnitude of hygienic practice of complementary food preparation and associated factors among mothers with children aged from 6 to 24 months in rural kebeles of Harari region, Ethiopia. The Method is a community based cross-sectional study design which was implemented on 422 of sampled mothers. Simple random sampling method was used to select those study participants. The data was collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaires. Data was processed, coded and entered into epi data version 3.02, exported to SPSS Version 20 and analyzed. Odds ratio along with 95% CI was estimated to measure the strength of the association. Finally, level of statistically significant was declared at P-value <0.05. From the result of this study, the status of good hygienic practice of mothers was (39.6%) [95% CI (confidence interval): 34.60, 43.90]. Lack of formal education [AOR (adjusted odds ratio): [AOR=0.177, 95% CI: (0.044, 0.75)], learning grade 1-8 [AOR=0.214, 95% CI: (0.052, 0.872)], age group of 25-30 years [AOR=6.51, 95% CI: (1.38, 30.50)], income ≥ 1000 ETB [AOR = 2.19, 95% CI: (1.354, 3.55)] and the presence of separate kitchen [AOR=0.594, 95% CI: (0.390, 0.906)] were significantly associated with complementary food preparation practice. The prevalence of good hygienic practice of complementary food preparation among of mothers was low in this study. Hence, the concerned stakeholders in collaboration with Harar health bureau need to facilitate awareness raising activities on hygiene practice which help to prevent food borne.