A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Hand Hygiene Technique among School Children in Maharashtra, India

Keeping kids healthy and clean it is important to teach the basic personal hygiene. It is extremely effective and inexpensive way to prevention of diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. The aim was to assess the effectiveness of hand hygiene technique demonstration on hand hygiene practices of primary school going children. Data was collected from the Rotary Shikshan Santha Malkapur Karad, Maharashtra, India. The study design used was one group pre-test, post-test design. 60 primary school going children aged 6 yrs-7 yrs were selected by simple random sampling technique. On the 1^st day, predemonstration test was conducted by using modified observational checklist and demonstration of hand hygiene technique was administered. After 7 days post-demonstration test was conducted. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The result showed that the mean pre-demonstration value was 5.383 and mean post-demonstration value was 9.033. The paired t' test value was 23.744, (p<0.0001) showing a significant gain in the improvement of hand hygiene practice of primary school going children. Chi-square test shows that there was a significant association of predemonstration practice score of primary school going children with mothers’ education (χ²=16.436, p<0.05), father’s education (χ²=23.016, p<0.05). The study was concluded that the demonstration of hand hygiene technique regarding hand hygiene was effective in improving the practices of hand hygiene of primary school going children and thus administration of steps of hand hygiene technique was easy to understand.