Effectiveness of Awareness Program on Knowledge of School Children regarding hand hygiene in a selected school at Mysuru

A child is a priceless gift with endless potential and with right upbringing and shaping, they may become the greatest asset to the nation. A school is an educational institution created to provide children a place to learn and an atmosphere in which they may study under the guidance of teachers. School children gain knowledge and skills from the schools. It is necessary for school children to maintain good health and to have proper education on personal hygiene. Therefore, it is necessary to educate them about health and hygiene. Hand hygiene is the act of cleaning hands with soap and water to remove viruses’ /bacteria/ microorganisms, dirt, grease, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the hand.

A pre-experimental one group pretest posttest design was used and 30 school children were selected using simple random sampling technique. Pilot study was conducted; the tool and study designs were found to be feasible. Data were collected using a structured knowledge questionnaire. An awareness program was conducted for school children. The data were collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of the study revealed that the significance of difference between the mean pretest and mean posttest knowledge scores which was statistically tested using Paired ‘t’ test and it was found to be significant at 0.05 level of significance.

It was concluded that awareness program was effective in increasing the knowledge of school children regarding hand hygiene. Therefore, the study recommends that, it is essential to organize health campaigns and awareness programs to enhance the knowledge regarding hand hygiene among school children.