Student hygiene education programs can help reduce school absenteeism

Inadequate access to safe water and poor sanitation infrastructure contribute to an estimated 1.87 million deaths per year from devastating diarrheal diseases, mostly among children less than five years of age in the developing world. But, according to a new study released in the April issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, school-based student hygiene education programs can impact behavior in the home and significantly reduce absenteeism amongst students.

The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relieve Everywhere, Inc.), revealed that an in-school student hygiene and water treatment education program in Kenya significantly increased household adoption of water treatment and proper hand washing techniques while decreasing absentee rates among students. The information shared in-school with students was transferred to the home resulting in a 200 percent increase in household water treatment, a 164 percent increase of proper hand washing techniques among adult caregivers and 240 percent among students.  As a result, student absenteeism decreased 26 percent after first follow-up (seven months). Results were also maintained at the time of the second follow-up (seventeen months).

"We are pleased that we were able to provide a community with important lessons about safe drinking water," said lead study investigator, Elizabeth Blanton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Perhaps most exciting is the idea that through student education we can help an entire community adopt new practices that will minimize the impact of diseases that can lead to death."

"With more than one billion of the planet's inhabitants lacking safe water, and lacking adequate resources to immediately and fundamentally improve water-related infrastructure in so many resource poor areas of the world, we as a global population must find alternative, innovative and appropriate point of use interventions," said Edward T. Ryan, M.D., President, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). "This study is significant because it suggests that targeted education of children can not only decrease school absenteeism, but can also affect the family's use of water. Such approaches warrant additional development and need to be pursued."

SOURCE American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene