Authors: Sudhanshu Ashok Mahajan, Jayashree Sachin Gothankar, Rupesh Balasaheb Deshmukh
Introduction: Hygiene refers to practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases. School children are particularly vulnerable to neglect basic personal hygiene. Poor hygiene practices play major roles in increased burden of communicable diseases in developing countries. This study was undertaken to assess the personal hygiene practices in school children living in slum area of Pune Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 150 school children situated in a slum under the field practice area of urban health training center of a private medical college, Pune with the help of pre-designed, pre-tested structured questionnaire. Results: The hygiene practices were graded as very poor, poor, average and good. It is observed that 8% had poor hygiene practices, 68% had average and 24% had good hygiene practices. Very poor hygiene practices were not seen. Conclusion: There is need for parents and teachers as agents of health promotion to enshrine the values of personal hygiene in school children. Keywords: Hygiene practices, school children, Pune.
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