Personal hygiene habituation and related factors of high school students in Gaziantep -Turkey

Abstract

Hand hygiene practice has become quite an important issue among hygiene practices. Improving personal hygiene practices leads to decrease in the occurrence of many infectious diseases. A total of 1370 students in 36 classes in 9 schools in Gaziantep were included in this study by "size proportional systematic sampling" and "basic randomized sampling" techniques. A data collection form termed as determining personal hygiene habituation was applied to all students. Total hygiene score was calculated according to the results of the "data collection form". Thereafter, Hand flora samples of 350 students among classes who participated in data collection form application were inoculated against blood agar, eosin methylene blue and saboraud dextrose agar by application on all left hand fingers. Identification of microorganism was performed by conventional method. Staphylococcus aureus was mostly isolated from hand culture of male students and Streptococcus sp. and Enterobacter sp. were mostly isolated from female students. Both personal hygiene practice among high school students and also toilet hygiene condition of schools were inappropriate. In this regard, education about hygiene should be given priority and the necessary structural arrangements should be made in schools.