A Study on Existing Hygiene Practices of Rural Women of Assam, India

Abstract

Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases.  It can be defined as the practice of certain habits to maintain a good health both at the personal level (personal hygiene – cleanliness, physical exercise, proper rest, sleep, bathing, avoiding smoking, drinking alcohols, drugs etc.) and at the community level (social hygiene – proper disposal of waste) (WHO, Jan, 2016). About 75% of health facilities are concentrated in urban areas where only 27% of the total population lives. Contagious, infectious and waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, amoebiasis, typhoid, infectious hepatitis, worm infestations, measles, malaria, tuberculosis, whooping cough, respiratory infections, pneumonia, reproductive tract infections etc. dominate the morbidity pattern, especially in rural areas [1]. The study was carried out in the state of Assam (India) with 270 randomly selected rural women of 3 districts, viz., Tinsukia, Nagaon and Barpeta districts to find the existing practice of respondents on hygiene. More than half of the respondents (57.04 %) belonged to ‘moderate category’ of practice level on hygiene. Majority of the respondents belonged to ‘moderate category’ of practice level on hygiene, namely Barpeta (56.67%), Nagaon (53.33%) and Tinsukia (61.11%). It is also observed that the Nagaon district had highest percentage (24.44%) of respondents that belonged to ‘poor category’ of practice level on hygiene as compared to the other two districts.