Assessment of practice of personal hygiene among primary school pupils in Calabar South L.G.A, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Context: The foundations of lifelong responsibility for the maintenance of personal hygiene are laid down in childhood, for healthy adulthood, and for the development of positive values about health and the use of health services. Children of school age are vulnerable to communicable diseases in the school environment due to lack of adequate knowledge, the practice of and attitudes to personal hygiene. For example, lack of hand washing and not bathing regularly, play important roles in the high incidence of communicable diseases and therefore have deleterious effects on a child’s long-term overall development. Few studies on this topic have been conducted among primary school pupils in Nigeria, and there is a paucity of data in Calabar South LGA on a similar topic.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the practice of personal hygiene among primary school pupils in Calabar South, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted. Multistage sampling was used to select participants for the study. Semi-structured self-administered pretested questionnaire were used for data collection.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 9.7 ±1.9 years. Majority 189(58.4%) of the respondents were 9-11 years and the highest proportion 127(39.2%) of the respondents being pupils of primary class level 4. The overall practice of personal hygiene revealed that 69.4% of the pupils had good personal hygiene practices while 30.6% had poor personal hygiene practices.

Conclusion: This study revealed an overall fair practice of personal hygiene among primary school pupils. Parents, teachers, school management and governments should ensure that pupils sustain and improve this practice of personal hygiene.