Hand Washing Practice and Associated Factors among Primary School Children in Damot Woide Woreda of Wolaita Zone, South Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional study

Abstract Background: Diarrhea and respiratory infections are respectively the leading causes of childhood mortality globally. Hand washing at schools with soap could substantially reduce diarrhea and respiratory infections among school-age children, however in developing countries it is still being practiced to a very low extent in particular critical moments such as before eating and after using sanitation facilities including toilet. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to determine the level of hand washing practice and associated factors among primary school children in Damot Woide Woreda, Wolaita zone, South Ethiopia.Methods: School based cross sectional study was conducted from January, 2018-February, 2018 using multistage cluster sampling technique and 580 students from six primary schools of grade 5-8 were included in the study and simple random sampling was employed to select study participants. Data was collected by using interviewer administered structured and pre-tested questionnaires by trained data collectors. Data entered in to Epi Data version 3.1 and exported into SPSSv20 for analysis. Both bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used.Result: Twenty eight point one percent (28.10% of [95% CI: 24.5-31.7]) students had practiced proper hand washing. The multivariate model depicted that being grade 8th[AOR =3.44, 95% CI:1.52, 8.23], urban residence[AOR =18.84, 95% CI:14.02,23.29], having parents [AOR = 10.74; 95% CI 8.80 to 12.36], teachers as a role models [AOR =6.45; 95% CI 5.52 to 8.99] and health professionals as a role models [AOR = 9.62; 95% CI 2.70 to 14.19], and presence of hand washing facility in school [OR =3.84, 95% CI:3.60, 4.07] were found to be significantly associated with proper hand washing practice. Conclusion: Proper hand washing practice among school children was found to be low. Therefore, promoting and enhancing hand washing practices and preparing hand-washing facilities in schools is mandatory to addressing the gap on hand washing practice among primary school students in the study area.