Assessment of hand hygiene practices among rural population in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Background: Hand washing is a preventive method for prevention of most of the communicable disease. Hand washing with soap is the most effective and cost-effective method to reduce the global burden of infectious disease. Present study was conducted to study hand washing practices in rural population. Objectives: The objectives are as follows: (i) To assess the hand washing practices in rural areas (ii) To identify the factors associated with hand washing practices (iii) To determine the association between hand washing and infectious diseases. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in rural area of Basti city of Uttar Pradesh to assess the knowledge, awareness and perception of hand washing practices by house to house survey during the period of July 2021 to September 2021. Data were collected by prevalidated and pre-tested questionnaire. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel and analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. Results: A total of 1245 participants were included in this study. A total of 26 participants were excluded in accordance with the exclusion criteria like incomplete information. All the participants (100%) practiced hand washing after defecation. The major source of information for motivation of hand washing was practices was family (41.9%) followed by school (38.3%) and mass media like Radio, Television etc. (19.8%). Literacy status plays significantly associated with medium of hand washing.Conclusion: Among all the study participants who practiced hand washing, majority of them used water with soap and is influenced by factors such as age, frequency of health facility visits, and previous infections. The efforts are needed to encourage hand washing practices in those who were only using water for hand washing.