Hand Washing Hygiene, Sanitation and Sustainable Development Goals in Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

A study on practices of hand washing hygiene, sanitation and sustainable development goals (SDGs), was carried out in Umuahia North local government area of Abia state, Nigeria, to investigate the causes of outbreaks of health care-care associated infections (HCAIs). Questionnaires made up of 25 attributes were distributed to health care workers (HCWs) to elicit from them their perception of these practices in their units. Complete responses came from 63 respondents which represented 79.75% of questionnaires distributed. The 5-point Likert scale was used in measuring the relative impact indices (RIIs) of not observing health care rules. About 42 of the respondents (66.67%) fall within the low region of RII, 19 respondents (30.10%) belong to the moderate region of RII, while 2 respondents (3.33%) fall in high region of RII. Information from 96.77% of the respondents indicated that hand washing hygiene and sanitation is poorly practiced. Rank ordering of relative observance indices (ROIs) showed that of the 25 attributes used in the study, 16 fall in the principal negative variables (Type 3), 5 of the attributes fall in the moderately negative variables (Type 2), while 4 fall in the relatively acceptable variables (Type 1), evidencing that 84% of the attributes are poorly practiced by HCWs. This situation impacted on the achievement of SDG3 and SDG6. It is concluded that these are the reasons for outbreaks in the area and it is recommended that government should educate HCWs on the observed risk factors for poor adherence to recommended hand hygiene practices.