Is gender an antecedent to adoption of preventive healthcare practices?

Healthcare awareness especially preventive healthcare plays an important role to improve the physical and mental ability of children in the younger age group. Adoption of good health practices enables them to keep up their fitness to learn better and shape them up to become human capital of the country in the future. Methods: The study was conducted in August, 2012. A structured questionnaire was designed and administered for 161 students of a high school located in rural area of Udupi district to assess the awareness of children on general hygiene, oral hygiene and food and nutrition.This paper attempts bring home the preventive healthcare awareness among high school children in rural areas and provide suggestions to impart the same through proper measures and programmes.

The study indicated that both the girls and boys of high school have poor knowledge on the mode of spread of communicable diseases and causes of lifestyle disorders. Conclusions: The present study concludes that awareness on preventive health practices is higher among high school girls than the high school boys.