Knowledge And Perception On Personal Hygiene Among Hostel Students In The University

Project and Seminar Material for Public Health

Knowledge And Perception On Personal Hygiene Among Hostel Students In The University

Abstract

Considerable fractions of the world’s diseases are communicable, of which over 60% are infectious. Utilization of knowledge on personal hygiene is very important to decrease these disease burdens especially in places like higher education institutions. This study was aimed at assessing knowledge and perception on personal hygiene among hostel students in Enugu State University. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. The target population was hostel students in Enugu State University. A systematic sampling technique was used to derive 167 students from the total population. The instrument used in the study was a self-designed questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, frequency and percentages. Findings showed that reported that overall, the responses showed a high level of knowledge of personal hygiene among nursing students with a rate of 86.2% on average. On the perception of 300 level nursing students towards the utilization of health education on personal hygiene, the responses showed a positive perception towards health education on personal hygiene among the students with a rate of 80.3% on average. Also, the barriers to personal hygiene among the students were shown to include social factors such as family, friends and environment (82.9%); personal preference (87.7%); body image/physical condition (80.9%); socioeconomic status (81.0%); and cultural variations (82.3%). The study concluded that proper health education would help to encourage standard health practices in students which will boost their competency during professional nursing care. It recommended the need for collaboration between the educators and health professionals to offer adequate training, health information and education to help the students in their personal hygiene practices.

Table of Content

Preliminary Page(s)

  • Title Page
  • Declaration
  • Approval
  • Dedication
  • Acknowledgement
  • Abstract
  • Table of Content

Chapter One

1.0 Introduction

  • 1.2 Statement of Problem
  • 1.3 Objectives of the Study
  • 1.4 Research Questions
  • 1.5 Hypothesis
  • 1.6 Significance of the Study
  • 1.7 Definition of Terms
  • 1.8 Organization of Study

Chapter Two

2.0 Literature Review

  • 2.1 Concept of Personal Hygiene
  • 2.2 Importance of Personal Hygiene Practices
  • 2.3 Nurses’ Role in Utilization Of Health Education on Personal Hygiene Practice
  • 2.4 Theoretical Framework
  • 2.5 Empirical Review

Chapter Three

3.0 Methodology

  • 3.1 Research Design
  • 3.2 Research Setting
  • 3.3 Target Population
  • 3.4 Sampling Technique
  • 3.5 Instrument For Data Collection
  • 3.6 Method Of Data Collection
  • 3.7 Method Of Data Analysis

Chapter Four

4.0 Results and Discussion

  • 4.1 Results
  • 4.2 Discussion

Chapter Five

5.0 Conclusion and Recommendation

  • 5.1 Conclusion
  • 5.2 Recommendations
  • References
  • Appendix

Chapter One

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

Personal hygiene is particularly important among students because they spend most of their time in public places, such as schools, colleges, or universities in proximity with others. The transmission of infections to students may contribute to their absence from school, which in turn may affect their academic productivity in college (White, Kolble, Carlson, Lipson, Dolan & Ali, 2018). Therefore, health knowledge and promotion are essential for students, their families, and communities at large. Indeed, a meta-analysis of the hand hygiene of 30 students showed that improvement in hand washing minimized the occurrence of upper respiratory tract infections by 21% and gastrointestinal illness by 31% (Aiello, Coulborn, Perez & Larson, 2016). Furthermore, Sarkar, (2019) in his study reported the health knowledge of students significantly improved after education.

The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies the transmission of healthcare associated infections by healthcare providers to be a major concern and apprehension for patient safety and care. WHO recommends surveillance and prevention of healthcare associated infections to be a priority in healthcare settings worldwide (Uneke&Ijeoma, 2019; Health care-associated infections Fact Sheet, 2018; WHO, 2018; Allegranzi, 2017), Nurses constitute the largest proportion of the health care workers and they are the “nucleus of the health care system”. They spend more time with patients than any other health care workers, their compliance with hygiene practices guidelines seems to be more vital and imperative in preventing the disease transmission among patients (Sharif, 2016).

Health education on personal hygiene offered to nursing students provides them with the knowledge in health, making them aware of the reduction of risk associated with poor hygiene practices, such as disease transmission. Health education made the nursing students capable to pass personal hygiene information to their families and community. Thus, leads to a better lifestyle, which can potentially increase their social hygiene profile. The development of policies, services, and research on such issues is integral to maintaining and raising the quality of health education.

Good hygienic care as well as practices in terms of personal hygiene i.e. its utilization contributes to a large extent on factors relating to healthful living, prevention of hazards from diseases and transmission of diseases. These health risk factors are directly related to some important daily activities implicated with worthy operational actions and obligatory responsibilities, such as washing hands before meals and after defecation with soap, brushing teeth at least twice a day specially after breakfast and after meals, taking bath with soap regularly, keeping nails short and taking regular exercise (Ali, Rahman, Siddiqui, 2018). Inadequate sanitary conditions and poor hygiene practices play major roles in the increased burden of communicable disease within these developing countries. In Nigeria, infectious diseases constitute one of the major health problems with its prevalence being particularly high among young children and adolescents and the occurrence closely related (Akpata, 2016). Adegbembo and El-Nadeef (2015) reported caries experience as high as 30 and 43% among Nigerians aged 12 and 15 years, respectively. Health education must be provided to increase the level of knowledge. Schools are acknowledged as important places for developing health promotion and influencing health-related behaviours (Haaple&Probart, 2016; Moon, 2019; Sidebottom, 2017), including hygiene-related behaviours.

There are many studies about the knowledge and practices of personal hygiene which were done on different groups (Tan, Cheng, Soon, Ghazali, &Mahyudin, 2017; Miko, Cohen, Conway, Gilman, Seward & Larson 2018; Suchitra & Devi, 2017). There are limited research findings to determine utilization of health education on personal hygiene among nursing students in Nigeria and this study aims to fill of the gap, therefore, this study will investigate the knowledge and perception on personal hygiene among hostel students in the University.

1.2 Statement of Problem

The increased burden of communicable diseases and its transmission due to poor personal hygiene practices and inadequate sanitary conditions remains a concern on the public health agenda in developing countries. Invalids are particularly vulnerable to the transmission of communicable disease due to neglect of basic personal hygiene, due lack of knowledge and practice by health professional and this is an area that’s should be emphasized to nursing students via health education. Poor knowledge, practice of and attitudes to personal hygiene such as hand washing play major roles in the high incidence of communicable diseases and therefore has negative consequences. There is a direct correlation between the lack of personal hygiene and illness, the latter of which proper hand washing has been shown to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Lack of hand hygiene is linked with outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis, upper respiratory tract infections, and Group B streptococcal colonization. In the majority of developing countries, roughly 80% of diseases are associated with poor domestic and personal hygiene (Ali et al., 2018).

Several studies have shown that poor personal hygiene contribute to cross transmission of microorganisms, gum infections, increased rate of infectious illnesses, incidence of food borne outbreaks and reproductive tract infections (Uneke & Ijeoma, 2019; Tan et al., 2017). These have been attributed to inadequate knowledge of personal hygiene and its practices. Personal hygiene deficiency diseases have been found to continue to be a serious public health problem in developing countries like Nigeria and people often at risk to transmission are invalids in hospitals.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The purpose of the study is to assess knowledge and perception on personal hygiene among hostel students in the University. Specifically, the objectives of the study are as follows:

  1. To determine the level of knowledge of personal hygiene among hostel students in the Enugu State University
  2. To determine the perception of towards personal hygiene in among hostel students in the Enugu State University
  3. To identify the barriers to the utilization of health education on personal hygiene among hostel students in the Enugu State University

1.4 Research Questions

The following questions were formulated to guide the study based on the research objectives;

  1. What is the level of knowledge of personal hygiene among hostel students in the Enugu State University?
  2. What is the perception of towards personal hygiene in among hostel students in the Enugu State University?
  3. What are the barriers to the utilization of health education on personal hygiene among hostel students in the Enugu State University?

1.5 Hypothesis

HO1: There is no relationship between knowledge and perception of personal hygiene among hostel students in Enugu State University

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study is important to explore the level of utilization health education on personal hygiene among hostel students in the University. The findings of this study will facilitate sound knowledge, appropriate attitude and right practice toward personal hygiene and promote adequate educational and literacy programmes to achieve healthy outcome among the nursing students. Also, the result of the study will also create the awareness among the University authority and the nursing educators to take the appropriate intervention and solution to address low levels of utilization of health education in order to improve outcome on students’ personal hygiene practices. In addition, the findings from this study can also provide basic and useful information for policy formulation and strategic interventions on personal hygiene among school students. Lastly, the findings of this study will contribute to existing body of knowledge on needle stick injuries in the healthcare sector as well as provide empirical literature for future studies in related areas.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Hygiene:

Refers to practices associated with ensuring good health and cleanliness.

Personal Hygiene:

This is the action, habit or practice of keeping oneself clean, especially as a means of maintaining good health. The practice of personal hygiene can also protect the health of others.

1.8 Organization of Study

The study comprises of 5 chapters. In chapter one, the concepts are introduced and the problem of the study is established with the research objectives and questions. Chapter two presents the literature review while chapter three presents the research methodology. The fourth chapter presents the results and discussion, and the last chapter presents the conclusion and recommendation.

Chapter Five

5.0 Conclusion and Recommendation

5.0 Conclusion

This study was designed to investigate the knowledge and perception on personal hygiene among hostel students in Enugu State University. The study reported that overall, the responses showed a high level of knowledge of personal hygiene among nursing students with a rate of 86.2% on average. On the perception of 300 level nursing students towards the utilization of health education on personal hygiene, the responses showed a positive perception towards health education on personal hygiene among the students with a rate of 80.3% on average. This implies that good personal hygiene knowledge can influence not only the perception towards use of health education on personal hygiene but encourage good personal hygiene practices also. In conclusion, this study reflects the hygiene practices among 300 level nurisng students and supports the use of health education programmes to increase knowledge and practice and to also address the barriers that range from personal, social to cultural factors. This implies that proper health education would help to encourage standard health practices in students which will boost their competency.

5.2 Recommendations

  1. There is a need to create more awareness opportunities for improving the knowledge of hostel students on the concept of personal hygiene, proper health management and hygiene practices. This would help to increase the rate of knowledge among students in the academic institutions as well as promote general wellbeing.
  2. There is a need for collaboration to offer adequate training, health information and education to help the students in their personal hygiene practices knowing that they will in turn teach other students and patients in the course of their clinical experience.
  3. There is a need for health professionals and educators to address the barriers that were identified in order to improve personal hygiene practices among the students.

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