Assessment of the Level of Awareness and Practice of Personal Hygiene among Internally Displaced Persons in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the level of awareness and practice of personal hygiene among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the study area. Data were collected from the IDPs by means of a survey using an interview schedule that was administered on 40 randomly selected IDPs. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis of frequency counts, percentages and means. The result of the descriptive analysis showed that eighty five percent of the respondents had small to medium family sizes. Majority (70%) of the respondents have attended programs on awareness of personal hygiene since coming to the camp. The findings suggest that the more people practiced personal hygiene, the less the incidence of particular diseases related to personal hygiene. It was recommended that more sensitization should be carried out with regard to creating awareness of the need for personal hygiene in order to improve the practice of personal hygiene, in an attempt to ring to the arrest minimum, the incident of hygiene related diseases in the camp. Water and other hygiene agents like soap and toothpaste should be provided for IDPs who are unable to afford these items on their own, in order to encourage personal hygiene practice.