Knowledge on hand hygiene of children in German primary schools.

Klar, Kristin; Knaack, Dennis; Hein, Anna Katharina; Kampmeier, Stefanie; Harmes, Martin; Stressler, Patrick; Steltenkamp, Siegfried; Weyland, Ulrike; Becker, Karsten

Zusammenfassung

Introduction. For infection prevention, respective key knowledge and skills in the general population are mandatory; especially hand washing is of particular importance. This general aim requires basic elements for awareness that must already be set in the childhood. However, data on the level of knowledge of primary schoolchildren about infectious diseases and their prevention are missing. Aims. Here, we investigated the level of knowledge of children attending primary schools about infectious disease prevention with focus on hand hygiene aspects. Materials and Methods. For data collection, a questionnaire in written form was developed, pre-tested and adapted for third grade children. The final questionnaire was applied in 13 primary schools of the county of Steinfurt of the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia enrolling schoolchildren of 27 third grade classes. Results. So far, 289 questionnaires collected from nine schools have been evaluated. Overall, there were 288 valid cases including 138 male (47.9%) and 150 female (52.1%) pupils. The children were between 8-11 years old (median, 9.5 years). For almost all respondents (267/270 valid cases; 98.9%), it was important to wash their hands after using the toilet. About three quarters of the participants (220/288 valid cases; 76.4%) were able to order the hand washing steps correctly. Including wrong answers (e.g. cancer and allergy), 91.9% (262/285 valid cases) of the pupils possessed basic knowledge that diseases exist, which can be transferred to human beings; mostly referring to flu-like and gastro-intestinal infections. Noteworthy, most schoolchildren answered that they don"t like visiting the sanitary facilities at school (85.2%; 241/283 valid cases). Conclusions. Most of the primary schoolchildren possessed basic knowledge on transmissible diseases and the need of prevention measures; in particular regarding hand washing subsequent to visiting sanitary facilities. However, practical details of hand washing were less well understood. Worrying, the vast majority of the enrolled schoolchildren assessed the conditions of the sanitary facilities in such a manner that they don´t like using them, thus, reflecting a situation that may thwart attempts for hygiene education in schools. Studies are warranted to investigate how educational and technology-based interventions can contribute to the improvement of the motivation and performance of hand hygiene procedures by schoolchildren.