Abstract

Background: Hand hygiene is a cheap, simple, and an effective method that is necessarily implemented in crowded areas such as schools where infectious diseases can spread easily.

Objective: To improve hand hygiene of students from grade 6 to 8 in a primary school from Canakkale, Turkey.

Materials and Methods: This research was conducted in the educational year of 2012–2013 in a primary school, Kepez, Canakkale, Turkey. The subjects consisted of 185 primary school students from grade 6 to 8. Of these, 161 (participation rate = 87%) students participated. It was an educational study devoted to improve skills about hand hygiene. This study was carried out in three steps. First, a self-answered questionnaire and a standard checklist were used before hand hygiene training. Second, after 1 week from this first step, students were trained for improving hand-washing skills. Immediately afterward the training course, researchers observed each student for the assessment of their hand-washing habits and then filled the skill checklist. The last evaluation was made in the third step after 3 months from the training course. Students’ hand-washing skill scores before and after the training were compared. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software, version 19.0. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Results: Of 161 participants, 50.1% were boys and 49.0% were girls with the mean age of 12.6 ± 0.9 (min 11; max 14) years. Of these participants, 32.3% were from grade 6, 32.3% from grade 7, and 35.4% from grade 8; 98.1% students were living in Kepez and 1.9% were living in village. A statistically significant difference was detected between the first practice, which was made before training, and the second and third practices, which were made after training, in terms of hand-washing skill development (p < 0.001). After the training, hand-washing skill scores showed a significant increase than before-training skill scores in both female and male students (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: In this study, hand-washing skill training was found to be effective. In addition, students were found to be successful on implementing hand-washing skills in the last practice that was done after 3 months from the training course. However, it should be considered that newly acquired behaviors must be followed once in 6 months or in a year with continuity for these behaviors to be permanent and long standing.

Key words: Hand hygiene, primary school student, hand hygiene training