Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hand Hygiene Among Parents: A Post COVID-19 Pandemic Survey

Abstract

Hand hygiene is one of the effective measures to prevent infectious diseases such as hand, foot and mouth disease and COVID-19. Parents involvement as the child's first educator in establishing the child's sanitary behavior are crucial in nurturing good hand hygiene habit. This study aimed to assess parents' knowledge, attitudes, and practice on hand hygiene in relation to childcare during the endemic phase of COVID-19. This cross-sectional study involved parents of pre-school children from the Sepang district of Selangor, Malaysia. The parents were given a set of pre-tested, self-administered questionnaires about their knowledge, attitude, and practice of personal hand hygiene, hand hygiene practice while caring for children, and diseases caused by inadequate hand hygiene. A total of 179 parents, mostly (62%) were mothers with mean age of 37.55 (SD 21.2) involved in this study. The parents had good knowledge (99.4%), good attitude (92.7%) and good (100%) hand hygiene practice. Good attitude was significantly associated with good practice. Good knowledge, attitude, and practice on hand hygiene among parents might be due to repetitive information about the importance of hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts should be made to ensure teachers, children and parents are continuously being educated and reminded about hand hygiene not only during COVID-19.