Sanitation and Hygiene Practices and their Determinants among the Rural Population of Vikarabad Bolla Chandrasekhar Reddy1, Kumar A. Revanth2,*, Alwala Rajeshwar Rao3, Tunga Pavani4 1Associate Professor, orcid-0000-0001-5146-0566, Department of Community Medicine, Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 2Assistant Professor, orcid-0000-0002-6980-4088, Department of Community Medicine, Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 3Professor & HOD, Department of Community Medicine, Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences, Vikarabad, Ranga Reddy, Telangana 4Under Graduate Student, Department of Community Medicine, Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences, Vikarabad, Ranga Reddy, Telangana *Corresponding Author: Dr A. Revanth Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Mob: 8008586279, revanthkumar.dr@gmail.com, orcid-0000-0002-6980-4088.
Online published on 13 November, 2019. Abstract Background Sanitation is the basic & fundamental requirement to maintain good health. Poor sanitation and hygiene are linked to various diseases like, communicable diseases, diarrheal disease, worm infestation, etc., which are preventable. A remarkable reduction in the nations mortality & morbidity rates are possible by adopting sanitation and hygiene practices by the people. Various interventions have been formulated in India to establish proper sanitation and measures to monitor level of awareness among the people and their active participation is very essential. Objectives To know the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices regarding sanitation and hygiene and their determinants, to know the proportion of population with and without sanitary latrines and to find out the extent of Open-Air Defecation practices and its determinants in the study area. Methodology A household based cross-sectional study was conducted in the Rural field practice area of a Medical College, Vikarabad from February to July 2018. Out of 488 households in Gottimukla village, 97 houses were earmarked for the study by systematic Random sampling method and information was collected from any resident available at the household at the time of visit. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results Majority (61.9%) of the participants had knowledge about Swatch Bharat Abhiyan. About 64.9% had better knowledge regarding Sanitation and Hygiene. Nearly 74.2% felt that maintaining good hygiene is important to stay healthy and to be free form sickness. A greater proportion of the study participants (91.8%) were disposing the solid waste in open drains though they had good knowledge and willingness it was not reflected in their practice. Conclusion and Recommendations The villagers had ample knowledge and positive attitude regarding sanitation and Hygiene, but failed to apply the same in their practice. It can be overcome with repeated Awareness programmes to the target population. Top Keywords Hand wash, Hygiene, Open air defecation, Sanitary Latrines, Sanitation, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Water storage. Top |