Assessment of personal hygiene and morbidity pattern among primary schoolchildren in a rural coal-field area of West Bengal, India

Background: Foundations of lifelong responsibility for maintenance of good health are laid down in childhood. School is the best place where information regarding hygiene, environment, and sanitation, as well as social customs, should be conveyed. Materials and Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in August-September 2017 at the rural coal-field area of Raniganj in Paschim Burdwan district of West Bengal, India. One government undertaken Bengali medium primary school was selected by SRS among 45 primary schools in Raniganj block area. After complete enumeration, the sample size became 106. Data were collected by interview of parents and children as well as observation of personal hygiene among children. A predesigned, pretested, and structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used. The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic information, illness during last 15 days, assessment of nutritional status according to the WHO grades of malnutrition based on BMI, and different indicators of personal hygiene. Data were entered into Microsoft (MS) Excel spread-sheet and analysis was done with the help of statistical software SPSS 20.0 version. Results: About 29% of students suffered from common health morbidities in preceding 15 days. Children who suffered from morbidity had less hygiene score than who had no morbidity and this difference was statistically significant. Hygiene score was significantly associated with WHO grade of malnutrition. Binary logistic regression showed that mother's education, hygiene score, and class were significantly related to the presence of morbidity. Conclusion: Majority of the childhood illnesses are preventable by promotion of hygienic practices among schoolchildren through proper health education of their parents and teachers.