A Enhancing Personal Hygiene Behavior and Competency of Elementary School Adolescents through Peer-Led Approach and School-Friendly Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent studies showed that poor personalhygiene practices play a major role in the increment ofcommunicable disease burden in developing countries. In Ethiopia,60% of the disease burden is related to poor sanitation practices.This school based study was aimed to assess the effectiveness ofschool-friendly and peer-led approach in improving personalhygiene practices of school adolescents in Jimma Zone, Southwestof Ethiopia.METHODS: A total of 1000 students from 10 to 19 years wereincluded into the study. The intervention was done using peer-ledapproach, health clubs and linking the school events with parents.Data were collected at baseline, midline and end-line usingstructured questionnaires. Repeated measurement analysis wasdone and statistical significance was considered at alpha 0.05.RESULTS: The findings of this study indicated that there was asignificant difference in personal hygiene practices and knowledgebetween the intervention and control groups (P<0.001). Asignificant difference was also observed with the duration of timein the intervention schools (P<0.05). The proportion of adolescentswho reported illness before the baseline survey was significantlyhigh among the intervention schools (P<0.01). However, at midlineof the survey, the proportion of self-reported illness wassignificantly high among the control group(P<0.001).CONCLUSION: The findings of this study showed that there was asignificant improvement in personal hygiene knowledge andpractice of students in the intervention schools. Therefore, there isa need for proper health education intervention through theframework of schools for the students to improve their personalhygiene knowledge and practices