Personal hygiene among primary school children living in a slum of Kolkata, India

Abstract

Introduction and objectives. For children, maintenance of personal hygiene helps to improve the quality of life and longevity. This is of particular importance in a slum community with compromised living situation. This study was undertaken to find out the knowledge and practice of personal hygiene among the primary school children living in a slum area, to identify any misconception among them regarding the maintenance of personal hygiene, to find out their morbidity pat- tern, and also to elicit the relationship between practice of personal hygiene among the children and the literacy status of their mother. Methods. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among 104 primary school children of a primary school situated in the slum area of Chetla, Kolkata, India with the help of a pre- designed, pre-tested and structured questionnaire. Data were ana- lyzed statistically by simple proportions and tests of significance. Results. It was found that the female students were more knowl- edgeable than the male students regarding the maintenance of personal hygiene. There was a wide gap between practice and knowledge of personal hygiene among the primary school chil- dren living in the slum area. Even, misconceptions do exist on certain indicators of personal hygiene among the students. Sta- tistically significant association was observed between practices of personal hygiene among the primary school children and the literacy status of their mother. Discussion and conclusions. Future of a society depends consid- erably on the health of its children. The parents and the school teachers, as constructive shapers of children?s health behaviors, should play a responsible role in early education of children on personal hygiene.