Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) regarding Personal Hygiene among Primary School going Children in Sadar Upazilla, Noakhali District, Bangladesh

Abstract

Personal hygiene which should be started from childhood and having proper knowledge and practice during
this time period will help to attenuate the infectious disease, thus increase the productivity of an individual
in his or her life cycle. Investigating the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding personal hygiene among
primary school going children was the aim of this study. A school based cross sectional study involving
408 children by probability proportionate was carried out in eight government and private primary schools
at Sadar Upazilla, Noakhali District. The mean age of the respondents were 9.77±1.62 years with equal
numbers of boys and girls. Overall 78.4% (N=320) respondents had good knowledge regarding hygiene
and the percentage was higher among girls (79.4%) compared to boys and there have been also significant
correlation among knowledge, attitude and practice about personal hygiene (P= 0.000). The study also
revealed that respondents having adequate knowledge of proper hygiene were more likely to have clean
clothes and clean teeth (AOR 2.37, CI 1.2-4.6 and AOR 2.51, CI 1.4-4.5 respectively). Thus continuous
health education and behavioral change program are essential and should be conducted frequently to improve
overall hygiene situation.