Examination of awareness and utilization of personal sanitary items among Rural communities

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Sanitary items and sanitation related diseases are a huge burden in developing countries; causing many people to fall ill leading to death (UNICEF, 2008). A large fraction of the world's illness and death is attributable to communicable diseases. A high percentage of all deaths in Africa including Nigeria are caused by infectious diseases. This trend is especially notable in developing countries like Nigeria and of course Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State, here acute respiratory and intestinal infections are the primary causes of morbidity and mortality among residents. Some examples of people's action or behaviours that can cause diseases are: not washing hands before eating, defecating anywhere on the open field, not washing hands after defecating, not washing clothes regularly and when necessary, not bushing the mouth properly with the right materials. Inadequate sanitary conditions and poor sanitary items practices play major roles in the increased burden of communicable disease within these developing countries. The morbidities arising due to poor personal sanitary items practices are more evident in the rural areas because of high population density, spread of respiratory infection, inadequate water supply, lack of sanitary facility, diarrhea and warm infestation, inadequate nutrition leading to anemia, malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. Awareness must be provided to increase the level of knowledge. Enlightenment campaigns arc acknowledged as important places for developing health promotion and influencing health-related behaviours including sanitary items-related behaviours. Once habits are established in adolescent, they tend to be longlasting and difficult to alter in adulthood. Attention to personal sanitary items will help a person look their best, feel their best and can help in avoiding diseases.
Motivation for personal sanitary items practice include reduction of personal illness, healing from personal illness, optimal health and sense of well-being, social acceptance and prevention of spread of diseases to others. An individual’s personality can be impaired by his failure to give proper care and attention to his body generally (Johnson, 2015). Globally cases of cholera had been estimated at 3 million yearly (WHO, 2014) and 500 million people are at risk of suffering from blindness from trachomas globally (Centre for disease control, (CDC),2017). The estimated prevalence of ascariasis was 25% globally (Haburchark, 2014). Personal sanitary items is among the risk factors for contacting the infections among others. Good personal sanitary items in relation to preventing epidemics or even pandemic outbreaks is very significant (Lucas & Gilles, 2012). In Nigeria, five common health problems of residents are fever/typhoid (56%), headache (43%), stomach ache (29%), cough/catarrh (38%) and malaria (40%) (Federal Ministry of Education, (FMOE) 2016). 30% of adolescents have low body Mass Index (BMI),0.2% have lice on their heads, 3% have skin rashes, about 20% do not have normal visual acuity, lip sores were observed in 0.8% and 0.5% of the residents respectively, dental plaque was observed in more than 10% of adolescent,0.4% have sores on their tongue, about 19% do not have normal hearing (FMOE), 2016). Knowledge and practice of personal sanitary items by residents have been found to increase significantly after creation of awareness through enlightenment campaign. In Nigeria, dental decay constitutes one of the major oral health problems with its prevalence being particularly high among young children and adolescents and the occurrence closely related to oral sanitary items and socio economic class (Akpata, 2014). Good grooming implies decent clothing, well-kept hair, clean teeth, fresh breadth, clean skin, and well-manicured nails. All these minute details about a person's body add up to his level of physical health and sense of well-being. There exist several studies about the knowledge and practices of personal sanitary items done on different groups, example secondary school students and adolescents (Tan. Cheng, Soon, Ghazali & Mahyudin, 2013). These studies have shown that poor personal sanitary items contribute to cross transmission of microorganisms, gum infections, increased rate of infectious illnesses, incidence of food borne outbreaks and reproductive tract infections. These have been attributed to inadequate knowledge of personal sanitary items and its practices. Personal sanitary items deficiency diseases have been found to continue to be a serious public health problem in developing countries like Nigeria and people often affected are school children and adolescents. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge, limited studies focused on young students have been found in the literature and there is no formal study conducted concerning personal sanitary items knowledge and practice by urban and rural residents of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State, Nigeria. Therefore, however, this study assessed the knowledge and practice of personal sanitary items of semi-urban and rural residents of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State, Nigeria.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Personal sanitary items is a concept that is commonly used in medical and public health practices. It involves maintaining the cleanliness of our body and clothes. The knowledge and practice of personal sanitary items are vital in all our everyday activities. The public health purposes of personal sanitary items include the prevention of faeco-orally transmitted diseases, aesthetic values and social impact (Baslos, 2010). The components of personal sanitary items include body sanitary item (skin care), oral sanitary items (oral care), hand washing (hand care), face sanitary items, fingernail and toe nail sanitary items (nail care), ear sanitary items, hair sanitary items, foot sanitary items, arm pit and bottom sanitary items, clothes sanitary items and menstrual sanitary items. Several studies show that personal sanitary items practices include: seeing a doctor, seeing a dentist, regularly washing (bathing or showering) of the body, regular hand washing, brushing and flossing of teeth, basic manicure and pedicure, feminine sanitary items and healthy eating (Ali el aL 2013; Bastos, 2010). Many diseases can be prevented if residents take personal sanitary items seriously. According to UNICEF (2014), numerous studies have revealed that development of communicable diseases results from unhygienic living or lack of hygienic precautions. In Ethiopia, unsafe water, unhygienic handling of food, storage of food at ambient temperature for a long time, poor domestic and personal sanitary items have contributed to the gross contamination of weaning foods leading to increased diarrheal diseases in infants and children (Olauuni. 2017). Sanitary items practice is closely linked to the availability of water and sanitation facilities; despite this, there are so many places where these are lacking and this situation thus reduces the effectiveness of the personal sanitary items of the people particularly among the teeming population in the rural community. Communal areas which offer facilities for hand-washing, bathing and laundry may effectively encourage good sanitary items.
Personal sanitary items is an important global public health issue.
Sanitary items refers to practices associated with ensuring good health and cleanliness. Personal sanitary items is the practice of maintaining cleanliness of one's own body. Good hygienic care as well as practices in terms of personal sanitary items contributes to a large extent on factors relating to healthful living and prevention of hazards from diseases, These health risk factors are directly related to some important daily activities implicated with worthy operational actions and obligatory responsibilities, such as washing hands before meals and after defecation with soap, brushing teeth at least twice a day specially after breakfast and after meals, taking bath with soap regularly, keeping nails short and taking regular exercise (Alu Rahman & Siddiqui, 2017). There are so many benefits attached to personal sanitary items such as prevention of diseases, quick recovery from illnesses, social acceptance by people, emotional satisfaction and good personal appearance.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Personal Sanitary items is the first step to good grooming and good health and this involves all measures taken by individuals to preserve his or her health (Johnson, 2015). Improved standard of sanitary items will prevent health problems like dandruff, athletes foot, body odour, pin worms, excessive ear wax. gastro-intestinal diseases ( Web Health Centre, 2015). It is estimated that unsafe water, and lack of sanitation and sanitary items every year claim lives of more than 1.5 million under age children particularly from diarrhea. Poor sanitary items behaviour is a major problem in developing countries (Van Wijk & Tineke, 2013).
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to assess whether;
i. Semi-urban dwellers of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State have knowledge and practice about personal sanitary items.
ii. Rural dwellers of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State have knowledge and practice about personal sanitary items. 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions were stated to guide the study;
i. To what extent does semi-urban and rural dwellers of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State know about personal sanitary items?
ii. To what extent does semi-urban and rural dwellers of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State practice personal sanitary items?
iii. Does personal sanitary items has positive impact to rural communities
1.5 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study is to examine an awareness and utilization of personal sanitary items among rural area in Funakaye Local Government Area. The study contained the following objectives;
i. To know the level of knowledge of semi-urban and rural dwellers of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State know about personal sanitary items.
ii. To extent semi-urban and rural dwellers of Maza, Jajami and Garina Maja Funakaye LGA, Gombe State practice personal sanitary items.
iii. To identify the positive impact of personal sanitary items to rural communities.

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Sanitary items are made up of ceramic ware that used in bathrooms.
Awareness is a concept about knowing, perceiving and being cognizant of events.
Utilization the action of making practical and effective use of something.
Rural communities are also known as the 'countryside' or a 'village'.
 
CHAPTER TWO
Literature review Cleanliness is often regarded as next to godliness and neglect of one's personal sanitary items could cause health and social problems that one may not be aware of. Bad breadth for example is a problem which affects many people. Some people with the health related challenge are not often aware of it (Nardo, 2015). When residents are provided with things needed to practice personal sanitary items, including skills and necessary information, the\ will become empowered to put into practice hygienic habits that will promote their health (WHO, 2014). It should be borne in mind that it is not easy to form personal sanitary items habits without adequate information and knowledge of what it all entails. However, when people are educated on basic skills related to personal sanitary items at different stages of their lives, it will not be difficult for them to continue this throughout life (Ademuwagun, Ajala Oke, Moronkola & Jegede, 2012). Personal sanitary items instructions should be presented creatively to people, personal sanitary items for instance can be integrated and taught particularly in schools as a school subject like integrated science, nutrition, biology and health education. External resource persons who are specialists the field relating to personal sanitary items could be invited to discuss and interact with the community including students. In passing across instructions people must be taught on issues they are already familiar with, before moving on to complex aspects. Also local resources person who are knowledge could be used to buttress this fact (Oshiname, 2013). This is fundamental principle of training which also applies to the provision of PH instructions. Multiple methods like role-play, demonstration, field trips when used ill make learning very interesting. Opportunities outside the classroom should be folly utilized and teachers must have very good social relationship with adolescent students knowing the nature of adolescents - that they respect and confide in those who are approachable and trustworthy (WHO, 2015), Personal sanitary items can be maintained by high standard of personal care and human beings are aware of the importance of personal sanitary items for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks spent hours in the bath, using fragrances and make up in an effort to beautify themselves and be presentable. Several studies have shown that it is essential that school pupils practice personal sanitary items to improve their health which will enable them learn, live, grow and play their respective roles effectively in their various schools and communities (WHO, 2014). At the same time good knowledge of personal sanitary items by residents will go a long way in improving the health of communities. Most infections, especially colds and gastro enteritis are caught when people passed germs from unwashed hands into the mouth and this can be prevented through personal sanitary items (Rahman, 2011). The simple act of hand washing for at least 20 seconds according to the United States Food and Drugs Administration recommendations can prevent the spread of many food borne illnesses and upper respiratory tract infections (Federal Drug Agency (FDA), 2009). Hand washing with soap has been reported to reduce diarrheal morbidity by 44% and respiratory infections by 23% (Curtis, Danquah & Aunger, 2019). Personal sanitary items involves personal grooming that deals with maintenance of good personal and public appearance (Nardo, 2015). Personal sanitary items practices of the residents in urban areas will likely better than those in the rural areas due to the fact that the facilities in the rural area are not enough and adequate. The study of Adeola (2015) was designed to determine the knowledge, perception and practices of PH among SSS in Ibadan North West Local Government Area (LGA). A cross-sectional study design was used. Public Junior Secondary School (PJSS) and two of 9 PSSS selected through simple random sampling. Systematic random sampling was used in selecting 476 respondents out of 724 students. An interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire, which included a 28 knowledge, 9 perception, and 31 practice scales, was used for data collection. Knowledge scores of  10, > 10 to < 20 and  20 were rated as poor, fair and good respectively. Perception scores of 4 were classified as positive while practice scores of 15 were rated as good. Two different sets of observational checklists were used to assess respondents’ physical appearance, classrooms and the school’s environment. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chisquare test at 5% level of significance. Respondent’s mean age was 13.92.0,55.7% were females and 60.3% were in JSS. Mean knowledge, perception and practice scores were 17.83.9, 5.82.1 and 15.44.7 respectively. Respondents with poor, fair and good knowledge in PJSS were 4.9%m 80.1% and 15.0%, while those in the PSSS were 0.5%,56.1% and 43.4% respectively. Majority (72.9%) had positive perception of PH, 48.8% of the respondents in PJSS and 54.0% in PSSS engaged in good practice. The opinion of 45.6% was that hand washing with clean water alone was enough to make hands free of germs. Bad PH practices among respondents included sharing of bathing sponge with others (73.8%), cutting of fingernails with teeth (40.3%) and cleaning of nostrils with fingers (31.5%). Significantly more respondents (66.4%) with good knowledge of PH engaged in good PH practices compared to those with poor knowledge that engaged in good PH practices (46.7%) with P-value of 0.01. Also more "respondents (58.0%) with positive perception engaged in good practices, than 33.3% with negative perception who engaged in good PH practices. Majority (62.0%) of the observed respondents had neatly combed hair, 87.1% had clean teeth, 98.0% had foot \\ear on and 72.3% wore stockings. Only 2.9% of the classes observed had bowls for water, none had either soap or towel and only 17.6% of the classes had dustbins. The median number of toilets in the schools was 3.0 (range 0-6) and 80.0% of the schools had dug \\ells. Majority of the respondents had positive perception of personal sanitary items and their knowledge was fair. Furthermore, some of their practices have potential for putting them at risk of infection. Training and the provision of adequate sanitary facilities are needed to address the challenges.

    Date: 2026-08-02 00:00:00.000000