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Knowledge Regarding Helminthic Infestation and Their Related Hygienic Practices among School Children in Selected Panchayat of Ernakulam, Kerala
Abstract
Worm infestation is a major public health problem in children of developing countries, and it is due to
low socio-economic status and also lack of hygienic practice. Hence, the study is intended to assess
the knowledge regarding helminthic infestation and their related hygienic practices among school
children in a selected panchayat of Ernakulam District. The main objectives of the study were to
assess the knowledge regarding helminthic infestation among school children, assess the hygienic
practices related to helminthic infestation among school children, and find the correlation between
knowledge and hygienic practices related to helminthic infestation among school children. A
quantitative descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Non-probability convenient
sampling was used to collect the data from 200 subjects who meet the inclusion criteria. The tool
selected for the study comprised of selected demographic data, a questionnaire to assess the
knowledge regarding helminthic infestation, and a rating scale for assessing the hygienic practices.
The content validity was obtained from one expert in child health nursing and four experts in medical
surgical nursing. The reliability of the tool was checked and found to be 0.84 for the structured
knowledge questionnaire and 0.99 for the rating scale which indicates that the tool was reliable. A
pilot study was conducted and found feasible. The data was conducted on 19-07-19 among 200 school
children in selected panchayat of Ernakulam District. The collected data were analyzed using
descriptive and inferential statistics. The knowledge regarding helminthic infestation among school
children was found to be that forty-five percent of subjects had obtained poor grade, 6% of subjects
had obtained very poor grade, 42% of subjects had obtained average grade, and the remaining 7%
had obtained good grade. The hygienic practices related to helminthic infestation among school
children were found to be that the majority of subjects (88%) had graded as good and the remaining
(12%) had graded as average hygienic practices. The r-value of knowledge and hygienic practice
regarding helminthic infestation among school children was 0.1002 which is significant at the level of
0.005. This indicates that there is a weak positive correlation between the knowledge and practice of
school children regarding helminthic infestation
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