Personal Hygiene Attitude Among School Students - A Comparative Introspection

Abstract

Health and hygiene is an essential part of our everyday life. Someone rightly quoted it that ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. Cleanliness is imperative
in all human communities. In fact, a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Entailing the last statement, the World Health Organization (WHO,
2006) defined health as “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. It is
an essential activity that everyone must perform to have a healthy living standard for themselves and others. Sometimes it is believed that
families and schools are the primary agents for the inculcation of healthy habits among children. Inevitably, significant adults play a vital role in
passing on good personal hygiene practice to the younger generation. The formidable years happen to be the most pronounced time period
in imbibing the good hygiene habits showcased by the adults to the young ones. And thereof the cultivation of proper health and hygiene
becomes an integral part in human lives. Despite of conscious hygiene habit formation, acts of negligence and oblivious behaviour are found
to be quite common among people. Inadvertent hygiene errors are also quite observed quite frequently among students. In spite of teaching
and disciplining students about good habit formations, students forget some and prohibit hygiene taboos. The present study targets to find
out the status of personal hygiene among students studying at the higher secondary level of formal school education.
Objective: The study focussed on finding out the differences in personal hygiene among students in relation to gender, locality of the schools
(urban and rural) and streams of study.
Hypotheses: Based on the objectives, null hypotheses were constructed.
Tools: Standardised questionnaire was used to collect data.
Data collection: Random simple sampling method was employed to pool information from the participants:
Sample: the sample size for the present study was 248(n=248).
Statistics: Differential and Inferential statistics were used as per suitability.