The Impact of Health Education in the Promotion of the Moroccan School Population: The Case of Hand Hygiene

Abstract

Hygiene is a set of measures aimed at preventing infections and the onset of infectious diseases, and studies have shown that handwashing can prevent a significant number of deaths worldwide. However, the school is both a space whose primary function is the transmission of knowledge and educational skills, but it is also a place of social life, so that in this logic the issue of health must be strongly involved in the school programmes. Indeed, the success of students depends on their health, and health promotion in schools is a vital skill that enables every citizen to take his or her place individually and collectively in matters of health and well-being. The objective of our study is to evaluate the adoption of healthy and sufficient attitudes and knowledge by first-year college students about handwashing in order to assess the knowledge acquired during their learning in elementary school regarding health education. The survey was conducted via a questionnaire on health behaviours of school-aged children (HBSC) among a sample of students in the first year of secondary school. Then, we chose to analyse statistical data from the school and university health teams of the provincial delegation of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in the province of Sidi Kacem. A total of 1,045 high school students were surveyed. The average age of the students was 14 years. 64% had no information about the consequences and severity of not washing their hands, only 7% of these students always used soap to wash their hands, and about 31% reported washing their hands before eating. Barriers to handwashing for these students were difficulty finding soap for 48% and lack of information for 27%. The prevalence of influenza was 23% in this sample. The results of this study show that students are not able to develop healthy attitudes about the importance of handwashing. It is therefore very important to strengthen pedagogical approaches to health education in the primary and preschool period.