Handwashing Practices Among Children in Public Schools in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the availability and utilization of handwashing facilities among public primary school pupils in Okigwe Education Zone two (2) of Imo State, Nigeria. Four research questions were posed to guide the study. One hypothesis was formulated and tested. The study adopted a survey research design. Random sampling technique was used to select a sample size for the study. 295 pupils (age bracket 6–14 years) from 12 public primary schools and their form teachers participated in the study. Data were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire designed from UNICEF's checklist modules for appraising hand washing facilities in schools. Also, observation and focus group discussion were used for the data collection on handwashing practices among pupils using hand washing facilities.Data generated were analyzed using percentage and frequency distribution counts in order to answer the research questions. All information from the focus group discussion using codes and themes were transcribed, grouped and analyzed based on the specific objectives. Findings suggest that out of the twelve schools observed, only two schools had both a handwashing basin with clean water that runs and improvised handwashing facilities at the same time. Based on the findings, hand washing facilities and supplies should be a major priority in all primary schools in Okigwe Education Zone 2 because of its importance in preventing communicable diseases. School health educators should work in conjunction with the Parents Teachers Association of each school to ensure constant and adequate provision of handwashing facilities and supplies. This will further encourage their usage and also reduce absence from schools due to infections.

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“…These were predominantly boreholes built by the government under a previous Millennium Development Goals (MDG) project. Our findings of limited handwashing access in schools are similar to those from studies conducted in other parts of Nigeria and other similar settings to ours [23][24][25]. A survey by UNICEF found only 46% of schools in developing countries had access to adequate water sources [25].…”

“…Nigeria is however quite expansive and there are possibly some geographical variations in the availability of resources for the school health program. Nevertheless, multiple studies from Nigeria and other developing countries describe deficits in the SHP which are similar to our findings [23,27,35,40], suggesting these contexts might experience similar challenges to ours. Our study does not measure actual class sizes to identify classroom overcrowding but we utilised proxies such as pupil to school ratio which can indirectly measure classroom overcrowding.…”

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“…Also, the practice causes malnutrition in children and risks of poor academic performance in children that take in water or food contaminated by microbes spread by open defecation of themselves or others (Fauziah et al, 2022). Likewise, there was a low practice of handwashing practice in Imo school children, Nigeria (Nwajiuba et al, 2019). A practice that has been very essential in preventing diseases especially the infectious ones, therefore failure to abide by it could lead to public health risk (Agbana et al, 2020).…”

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“…incidence of communicable diseases in school-age children 11 . Because HW reduces school absenteeism and the loss of caregivers' workdays, it also has a substantial social and economic impact on the family, society, and children [12][13][14][15] . Water-related infections cause over 443 million school days to be missed annually, making it a major contributor to school absenteeism in developing nations 16 .…”