The Era of Coronavirus: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, and Barriers to Hand Hygiene Among Makerere University Students and Katanga Community Residents

Abstract

Background The Novel Coronavirus was declared as a pandemic by the WHO at the end of 2019. Proper hand hygiene was identified as one of the simplest most cost-effective Covid-19 control and prevention measures. It is therefore very important to identify gaps in the knowledge, attitude, and practices, and barriers regarding hand hygiene in the community. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a simple random sampling technique. An interviewer-guided questionnaire with questions on knowledge, attitude, practice, and barriers to hand hygiene was used in data collection. Collected data were analyzed using Microsoft office excel 2016 and STATA 15 software. A 95% confidence interval was used and statistical significance was P<0.05. Results Only 88 (24.5%) of the participants had adequate knowledge of hand hygiene. 32.8% of the university students had adequate knowledge compared to 6.3% of the Katanga residents. The majority of 336 (93.6%) participants had a good attitude towards hand hygiene. University students had a significantly better knowledge of hand hygiene while Katanga slum residents had a slightly better attitude towards hand hygiene. Only 19.6% accomplished all the seven steps of handwashing. 38.4% of the participants were still greeting by handshaking. Of the participants, 60.1% noted lack of soap as a barrier to hand hygiene and 62.9% reported having more than three barriers to hand hygiene. Participants who had been taught handwashing were more likely to have better hand hygiene knowledge and practice. Conclusion There was an overall high proportion of participants with a low level of hand hygiene knowledge. There is a need for optimizing hand-hygiene practices through addressing the barriers and promoting public health education.

Translating and Validating a Bahasa Version of The Hand Hygiene Questionnaire

“…The findings of the study did not show a significant association between demographic factors and attitude towards hand hygiene. In contrast, Nuwagaba et al, (2020) study shows a significant relationship between attitude and knowledge of hand hygiene among university students. Their findings are in line with study by Engdaw, Gebrehiwot & Andualem (2019).…”

“…However, Yousif, Tancred & Abuzaid (2020) revealed that only 35.6% of the healthcare providers achieved a satisfactory knowledge level on hand hygiene. Besides, a majority of the students (80.4%) found having a poor knowledge on hand hygiene and they are not able to perform all the essential steps (Nuwagaba et al, 2020). This finding is contradicting with Hussain (2018) who discovered that participants had a high level of knowledge but poor in hand hygiene practice.…”

Effect of Hand-washing Education on Patients’ Knowledge and Practice of Infectious Disease Prevention in Selected Health Centers in Akure South, Ondo State

“…Based on the findings from this study, it was revealed that 92 (93.9%) had been educated on handwashing before and after the hand-washing education all the respondents 98 (100%) had education on hand-washing. The study of [15] on knowledge, attitude, practices, and barriers to hand hygiene among Makerere University Students and Katanga Community Residents, The study showed (63.2%) of the participants had received prior teaching on hand hygiene. The highest percentage of those trained, university students (71.7%) had ever received teaching on hand hygiene compared to Katanga community residents 50 (44.6%).…”

Cross-Sectional Study to Evaluate Knowledge on Hand Hygiene in a Pandemic Context with SARS-CoV-2

“…The increase in the incidence of certain diseases, including SARS-CoV-2 infection, is also linked to the lack of compliance of medical staff on various issues. Hand hygiene (HH) is the basis of any program for infection control [1][2][3][4][5][6]. However, the promotion of hand hygiene behavior remains a complex issue [3,7,8].…”