Knowledge and Practice of Personal Hygiene among Primary School Students in Sharjah-UAE

摘要

Proper knowledge and practices of personal hygiene plays critical role in avoiding communicable diseases and benefit the primary school children to enjoy healthy and productive school life. The present study evaluated the knowledge and practices related to personal hygiene among primary school children in Sharjah.This cross-sectional study involving 428 primary school children was conducted in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Out of 428 students, 155 were from grade 1 (27%), 164 from grade 3 (38%) and 149 from grade 5 (35%). The mean age for students was 8.61 years (SD=1.91). The ability to define personal hygiene was significantly higher among girls (95%) (N=194) as compared to boys (82%) (N= 183). Parents and teachers were the most common source of knowledge providers about personal hygiene to the participants. With the existing knowledge and practices related to personal hygiene among the students, parents and teachers can play positive and significant role to improve it further.