DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i04.015

Pages: 1683-1687

Hand washing is the single most preventive measure for reducing the spread of contagious diseases. Hand hygiene is a cheap, simple, and an effective method prevention and control of most of the communicable disease. To know the status of knowledge and practice of hand washing of students in a rural school. It was an observational crosssection study among 190 secondary school students from class V to VII in a village of Singur Block,West Bengal. The male students had better knowledge regarding hand washing than the female students while their practice was worse than the female counterparts. Students of higher age and higher class had better knowledge and it was significant in both bivariate [OR(CI)3.167 (1.53-6.56), OR(CI)2.270 (1.156-4.457)] and multivariable [OR(CI)2.815 (1.206- 6.573),OR(CI)1.319 (0.600-2.898)] analysis. Female, higher age and higher class were also important determinants of good hand washing practice. Knowledge regarding hand washing was upto the mark while practice was poor. Therefore all efforts must made to improve the hand washing practice among the school children, This will in the long play a very important role in prevention and control of many infectious diseases.