Personal Hygiene Practices among In-School Adolescents in Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State

Abstract

This study ascertained personal hygiene practices among in-school adolescents in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. Four objectives, four corresponding research questions and three hypotheses were posed to guide the study. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population for the study was secondary school students in Nsukka LGA. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to draw the sample of 480 in-school adolescents for the study. A researcher’s designed Personal Hygiene Practices Questionnaire-PHPQ was the instrument used for data collection. Face validity of the instrument was established by three experts from the Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, University of Nigeria Nsukka. The Percentages and frequencies were used to answer the research questions. The null hypothesis was tested using chi-square at .05 level of significance. The study revealed that a higher proportion (59.91percent) of in-school adolescentspractice good personal hygiene. The proportion of female (64.65percent) in-school adolescents that practiced good personal hygiene based is higher than that of male (55.00 percent). The proportion of in-school adolescents in different classes are; SS2 (71.91percent), SS1 (69.46percent), JSS2 (55.17percent), JSS1(39.42percent); Proportion of in-school adolescents aged 15-19years (71.10percent) practice good personal hygiene than those aged 10-14years(49.91percent). The study recommended among others that sensitization and health education programme should be organized by schools, religious groups and non-governmental organizations to educate in-school adolescents on the need to practice good personal hygiene.