Factors Mitigating Hygiene Practices among Primary School Teachers in Enugu State

Abstract

This study investigates the factors mitigating hygiene practices among primary school teachers in Enugu State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study sample was 1196 teachers, comprising of 579 males and 617 female teachers. Multistage sampling technique was used in the selection of the sample size. The instrument used for data collection was ‘’Hygiene Practices Questionnaire’’. Using Cronbach Alpha method, the instrument had internal consistency coefficients of 0.87. The instrument was administered to the participants in their respective schools. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics and the hypothesis was tested at 0.05level of significance. Findings revealed that poor finance of health facilities; cost of maintenance; provision of cleaning equipment; provision of sanitary products; sense of health belief; contextual factors; provision of water supply and shortage of toilets were factors mitigating hygiene practices among primary school teachers. Furthermore, the hypothesis tested in the study revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the mean rating of male and female teachers on the factor mitigating hygiene practices among primary school teacher. Government and other stakeholders should try to finance the teachers in the areas of providing health facilities such as provisions of toilets, toiletries, towels, tissue, disinfectant, wash hand basin, soap and constantly send them for seminars to update their knowledge on hygiene practices.