Abstract

Background: Hand washing is a simple and inexpensive preventive practice that has been around to thwart infectious diseases for centuries. With corona virus on the rise, its importance cannot be overstated.

Aim: To assess the awareness of hand-washing among 3-11 years old

Study Design: Cross-sectional comparative study

Place and Duration of Study: New Misali Cadet School Students, Dera Ghazi Khan from 1st September 2019 to 31st March 2020.

Methodology: Eighty five respondents were included. The responses for demographic, hand washing and level of awareness variables were gathered using a structured pre-tested questionnaire.

Results: There were 65 males and 20 were females. Thirty three (38.80%) respondents had age between 3-6 years & 52(61.20%) were between 7-11 years of age. Eighty (94.11%) claimed to be aware of hand washing but only 60 (70.60%) were found having satisfactory level of Awareness. Seventy six (89.4%) of them claimed to know the method of hand washing and 52(61.2%) practiced it more than twice a day. Forty seven (55.29%) got awareness from school. Fifty two (61.18%) were aware of benefits of hand washing like prevention of transmission of communicable diseases and 50 (58.80%) were aware of harms of not washing hands like susceptibility to fatal diseases such as diarrhea. Significant association was found between level of awareness and awareness of benefits of hand washing and. harms of not practicing it properly.

Conclusion: Irrespective of under developed and remote city status, the school children of Dera Ghazi Khan are as well aware of hand washing as the school children of other developing countries. But the lower satisfactory percentages of hand washing awareness levels asserts the need for more awareness campaigns at the community and institutional level to thwart infectious diseases especially with corona virus on the rise.

Keywords: Hand washing, Awareness, Level of awareness