Knowledge, attitude and personal hygiene practices among female high school students

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between the female high school students’ knowledge, attitude and personal hygiene practices. Specifically, this sought to describe the respondents’ demographic characteristics in terms of residence, educational attainment of their mothers and family income; knowledge and attitude; and personal hygiene practices. This is a descriptive-correlational study utilizing a one-shot survey design. The respondents of the study were 274 female high school students of Aklan National High School for Arts and Trades in Kalibo, Aklan, who were enrolled from 2012-2013. The data were gathered using a structured and self-administered questionnaires. The data were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 19.0. The frequency, percentage, and means as descriptive statistics were used to describe and analyze univariate variables of the study. The Chi-square and Gamma tests were used to analyze the significance and the strength of relationships between variables at 0.05 alpha level. Garrett's interpretation was utilized for the analysis of the extent of relationship among variables. Majority of the female high school students reside in rural areas (77.8 percent) Almost half (49.3 percent) of the respondents’ mothers were college educated and with a family monthly income of Php 5, 000 and below (62.8 percent). Further, most of the female high school students had an average knowledge of proper hygiene (52.2 percent), with a very favorable attitude (46 percent) and had good personal hygiene practices (74.5 percent). In addition, it was found that there is no significant relationship between the respondents’ residence and educational attainments of their mothers with their level of knowledge of proper hygiene. However, family income was significantly related with the respondents’ level of knowledge of proper hygiene (Gamma value = 0.310 and the p. value = 0.001). The study showed that family income and educational attainment of their mothers were statistically significant (Gamma value = 0.436 and the p. value = 0.000 and Gamma value = 0.241 and the p. value = 0.008, respectively) to their attitude towards personal hygiene while respondents’ residence had no significant relationship. The educational attainment of the respondents’ mothers was significantly related (Gamma value = 0.265 and the p. value = 0.024) with their personal hygiene practices. Residence and family income were statistically insignificant with their personal hygiene practices. Moreover, the level of knowledge of the respondents was statistically significant (Gamma value = 0.533 and the p. value = 0.000) with their attitude towards personal hygiene. The level of knowledge of the respondents had no significant relationship with their personal hygiene practices. The attitude towards personal hygiene of the respondents had a significant relationship with their personal hygiene practices (Gamma value = 0.239 and the p. value = 0.037). There was no significant relationship between knowledge of proper hygiene and personal hygiene practices when their attitude towards personal hygiene was controlled.