Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 217 (2005)Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hygiene Among Kindergarten Teachers inAl Ain, UAEStudent Authors: Shaikha Saeed Butti Ali Al Muhair, Hessa Abdulla Mohd Al Shehhi,Noura Gafan Sultan Al KhailyFaculty Supervisors: Dr. J. Al Mutawa, Dr. P. BarssAbstract:Objectives: To determine hygiene habits, assess the attitude, knowledge and practiceof hygiene among kindergarten teachers and to examine the level of hygiene inkindergartens.Methods: The study is a randomized cross-sectional survey carried out in 2005, usinga self-administered questionnaire consisting of 36 questions. The study populationconsisted of 113 private and governmental kindergarten teachers in Al-Ain.Results: The results show that teachers lack the basic knowledge about food and handhygiene. 94% of teachers in private kindergartens and 79% of teachers in governmentkindergartens get a score lower than 5 out of 10. In a basic food and hand hygieneknowledge test 4% took hand washing courses while only 7% took space occupiedper child courses. 11% of private schools took hand washing courses, 6% took foodstorage courses and 11% took space occupied per child courses during their academicstudy. The level of hygiene did not match with the results of the questionnaire and thismismatch could be due to the lacking of hygiene guidelines.Conclusion and recommendation: Although kindergarten teachers are responsible forteaching hygienic behavior they lack the knowledge of basic hygiene. Adding hygienecourses and workshops to the curriculum may be helpful. Providing standardguidelines are essential to increase the level of hygiene in kindergartens.Keywords: Kindergarten, Practice of hygiene, Teachers.