Assessing the knowledge, attitudes and practices of hand washing among pupils in private and public school in Pader Town Council.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Globally, hand washing is low despite the fact that it would prevent communicable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea which annually results in the death of 2 million children as well the loss of 300 million school days. In Uganda, children spend a lot of their early childhood time in schools which has made the Government of Uganda integrate health education on sanitation into their syllabus so that they grow with this knowledge and can easily translate it into practice.Therefore proper hand washing practices among school children would amicably prevent infections thus keeping them in school contributing to better school attendance and child development. Study objective This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of hand washing among pupils in private and public primary schools in Pader Town Council, Pader District Methodology The study involved a cross sectional study using quantitative methods. Quantitative data was obtained using semi-structured questionnaires through face to face interviews. The collected data wasbe entered using EpiData. It was then cleaned and analyzed using STATA. The results were then be presented in tables and graphs. Results 183 children were interviewed with (71.59%) of the children having good hand washing knowledge, (66.67%) of the children had positive attitudes towards hand washing with (80.87%) of the children having good hand washing practices. Only(19.14%) could correctly demonstrate hand washing. (54.10%) of the children knew that they could get exposed to diarrheal diseases if they didn’t wash their hands. (68.85%) and (65.03%) of childrenagreed that frequent hand washing and hand washing with soap before eating respectively were important. Conclusion The local government through its health authorities should ensure continuous health education through media and community talks ensure, schools have soap, water and hand washing facilities.