Practice on hand washing In selected slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Objective: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted during the period of February 2013 to May 2013 with a sample size of 138using a pre-tested semi structured questionnaire from selected slums of Dhaka city toassess the practice on hand washing; non randomized purposive sampling technique was applied. 33.6% respondents were belonging to 18-27 years followed by 26.3%. With mean age of 35.8 ±15.663. 75% respondents were female. 49.6% of the respondents had primary education and 28.1% illiterate. 44.8% respondents were husewife. Most of the respondents (51.4%) argued that they need more infomation on steps of hand washing, 22 (19.8%) need time of hand washing and steps in hand washing, 16.2% thought they need information for timing of hand washing 33.9% got hand washing information from mass media, 24.8% from NGO worker or health educator. Sex and type of material used for hand washing is statistically significant where (p-value is 0.001). Gap between knowledge and practice still persist in hand washing practices. Long term and extensive initiatives can aware people about thethe effectiveness of hand washing.