Research Article
An Institution-Based Assessment of Students’ Hand Washing Behavior
Table 1
Descriptive characteristics of the study population (N = 577).
| | Variables | Gender | | Male (N = 286) | Female (N = 291) |
| | Age (years) | | 17–22 | 172 (60.1) | 210 (72.2) | | 23–28 | 97 (33.9) | 72 (24.7) | | ≥29 | 17 (5.9) | 9 (3.1) | | Discipline | | Social/management sciences | 137 (47.9) | 152 (52.2) | | Science/engineering | 91 (31.8) | 59 (20.3) | | Medicine/nursing | 58 (20.3) | 80 (27.5) | | Type of university | | Private | 164 (57.3) | 140 (48.1) | | Public | 122 (42.7) | 151 (51.9) | | Frequency of hand wash per day | | ≤2 times | 11 (3.8) | 12 (4.1) | | 3–5 times | 129 (45.1) | 98 (33.7) | | ≥6 times | 146 (51.1)a | 181 (62.3)a | | Hand hygiene habits | | Hand washing with soap and clean water | 24 (8.4) | 38 (13.1) | | Hand washing with clean water only | 253 (88.5) | 237 (81.4) | | Use of alcohol hand sanitizers | 9 (3.1) | 16 (5.5) | | Reasons for skipping hand washing | | Wash room is far | 51 (17.8) | 51 (17.5) | | Lack of clean running water | 57 (19.9) | 41 (14.1) | | Dirty wash room facilities | 55 (19.2) | 46 (15.8) | | Forgetting | 123 (43.0) | 153 (52.6) | | Hand washing knowledge score | | Poor | 57 (19.9) | 59 (20.3) | | Average | 114 (39.9) | 106 (36.4) | | Good | 115 (40.2) | 126 (43.3) | | Hand washing practices score | | Poor | 213 (74.5) | 221 (75.9) | | Average | 68 (23.8) | 64 (22.0) | | Good | 5 (1.7) | 6 (2.1) | | Hand washing skills score | | Poor | 107 (37.4) | 99 (34.0) | | Average | 82 (28.7) | 75 (25.8) | | Good | 97 (33.9) | 117 (40.2) |
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