Personal hygiene in schools: retrospective survey in the northern part of Côte d’Ivoire

INTRODUCTION: Students’ personal hygiene helps maintain health and promote good academic performance. When health facilities are insufficient, this hygiene can be difficult to achieve. We wanted to analyse the determinants of personal hygiene in schools in the northern region of Côte d’Ivoire. METHODS: The retrospective cross-sectional study brings together data on 2,035 schoolchildren recruited from thirty schools in northern Côte d’Ivoire. Indexes on personal hygiene were constructed and analysed in comparison to the socio-demographic characteristics of students, homes and schools. They were analysed with R Software version 1.1.463, the χ(2) test and a logistic regression model. RESULTS: Overall, the majority of students had good personal hygiene (82.75%) with an average personal hygiene score of 4.74 ± 1.36. The predictors of good personal hygiene among schoolchildren were female gender (OR = 1.5; 95% CI = 4.31-16.37), father’s primary education level (OR = 1.55; 95% CI = 1.07-2.29), the father’s income level above 60,000 FCFA (90 Euros) and modern housing (OR = 1.45; 95% CI = 1.05-2.03). However, the poor level of home sanitation resulted in poor personal hygiene among the students (OR = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.23-0.5). CONCLUSIONS: Measures to raise the standard of living of families and the provision of sanitary facilities in homes becomes necessary in order to improve students personal hygiene.