Observations on Handwashing Practices of Mothers and Environmental Conditions in Ona-Ara Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

During baseline survey before developing an educational intervention programme for modifying behaviours toward improved home management of diarrhoea, handwashing practices and environmental conditions of 549 mothers and health care-providers of 638 children aged less than 5 years in Ona-Ara Local Government Area (LGA) were observed. The aims of the study were to describe the patterns of maternal handwashing behaviour in relation to disposal of faeces and feeding of children, and to describe environmental conditions of the households. Handwashing behaviours after cleaning a child who has just defecated and after disposal of faeces were observed in 29.3% episodes, while handwashing before feeding the child occurred in 12.4% of observations. Handwashing in relation to these events occurred more frequently in periurban than in rural villages (p