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The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh
Improving hygiene practices is considered to be the single most cost-effective means of reducing the global health burden of infectious diseases. Hygiene promotion and disease prevention interventions often portray and promote “hygiene” from a biomedical perspective, which may not be optimally effec...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9407852/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36011456 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19169823 |
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author | Sultana, Rebeca Nahar, Nazmun Rimi, Nadia Ali Swarna, Sayeda Tasnuva Khan, Shifat Saifullah, Md. Khaled Kabir, Humayun Jensen, Peter Kjær Mackie |
author_facet | Sultana, Rebeca Nahar, Nazmun Rimi, Nadia Ali Swarna, Sayeda Tasnuva Khan, Shifat Saifullah, Md. Khaled Kabir, Humayun Jensen, Peter Kjær Mackie |
author_sort | Sultana, Rebeca |
collection | PubMed |
description | Improving hygiene practices is considered to be the single most cost-effective means of reducing the global health burden of infectious diseases. Hygiene promotion and disease prevention interventions often portray and promote “hygiene” from a biomedical perspective, which may not be optimally effective for achieving their goal of changing people’s behaviors. This study aimed to educe the meaning of hygiene for the residents of a low-income community in Bangladesh and how that meaning shapes their personal hygiene practices. We conducted this study in the Tongi township in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from September 2014 to June 2016. The research team purposively selected 24 households. The team conducted day-long observations using the participant observation approach and in-depth interviews with specific members of the 24 households. The concept of “hygiene” had two separate meanings to the study participants: cleanliness and holiness. The participants reported that cleanliness was required to remove odors, grease, hot spices and dirt. The motivation for cleanliness was to feel fresh, avoid heavy feelings, feel light and feel comfortable. To maintain the holiness of the body, bathing and ablution needed to be performed following particular religious rules/rituals. The motivation of holiness was derived from their accountability to God. The participants also reported that the cleansing processes and methods for the body and the home for cleanliness reasons were also different from those for holiness reasons. The notion of “hygiene” was multidimensional for the residents of the low-income urban community in Bangladesh. Our study participants did not explicitly conceptualize a notion of hygiene that was based on the germ theory of diseases but rather a notion that was based on individual physical comfort and cultural belief systems. Future studies on the prevention of hygiene-related diseases should combine and link the biomedical aspect to religious and cultural rituals to promote improved hygiene practices. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9407852 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-94078522022-08-26 The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh Sultana, Rebeca Nahar, Nazmun Rimi, Nadia Ali Swarna, Sayeda Tasnuva Khan, Shifat Saifullah, Md. Khaled Kabir, Humayun Jensen, Peter Kjær Mackie Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Improving hygiene practices is considered to be the single most cost-effective means of reducing the global health burden of infectious diseases. Hygiene promotion and disease prevention interventions often portray and promote “hygiene” from a biomedical perspective, which may not be optimally effective for achieving their goal of changing people’s behaviors. This study aimed to educe the meaning of hygiene for the residents of a low-income community in Bangladesh and how that meaning shapes their personal hygiene practices. We conducted this study in the Tongi township in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from September 2014 to June 2016. The research team purposively selected 24 households. The team conducted day-long observations using the participant observation approach and in-depth interviews with specific members of the 24 households. The concept of “hygiene” had two separate meanings to the study participants: cleanliness and holiness. The participants reported that cleanliness was required to remove odors, grease, hot spices and dirt. The motivation for cleanliness was to feel fresh, avoid heavy feelings, feel light and feel comfortable. To maintain the holiness of the body, bathing and ablution needed to be performed following particular religious rules/rituals. The motivation of holiness was derived from their accountability to God. The participants also reported that the cleansing processes and methods for the body and the home for cleanliness reasons were also different from those for holiness reasons. The notion of “hygiene” was multidimensional for the residents of the low-income urban community in Bangladesh. Our study participants did not explicitly conceptualize a notion of hygiene that was based on the germ theory of diseases but rather a notion that was based on individual physical comfort and cultural belief systems. Future studies on the prevention of hygiene-related diseases should combine and link the biomedical aspect to religious and cultural rituals to promote improved hygiene practices. MDPI 2022-08-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9407852/ /pubmed/36011456 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19169823 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Sultana, Rebeca Nahar, Nazmun Rimi, Nadia Ali Swarna, Sayeda Tasnuva Khan, Shifat Saifullah, Md. Khaled Kabir, Humayun Jensen, Peter Kjær Mackie The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh |
title | The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh |
title_full | The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh |
title_fullStr | The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh |
title_full_unstemmed | The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh |
title_short | The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh |
title_sort | meaning of “hygiene” and its linked practices in a low-income urban community in bangladesh |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9407852/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36011456 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19169823 |
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