Assessment of knowledge and practices of selected health and sanitation issues in slums of Ahmedabad

Abstract

Background

India has recently witnessed unprecedented economic growth. However, this

rise in income has not resulted in the concurrent economic development in the

country. The urban poor have been at the most disadvantage and have shown

poor performance indicators in health outcomes. This paper is based on

baseline assessment of knowledge and practices of selected health issue in

selected slums of Ahmedabad.

Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional research was conducted to analyse and explore the level of awareness of hygiene

and sanitation issues of slum dwellers. The data was compiled using household survey among 600 slum

dwellers in two slums. From each slum, 100 households with a woman who is either pregnant at the time of

the survey or who has recently delivered and 200 neighbouring households were interviewed. The non

probability snowball sampling technique was used. The data was collected with the help of structured

questionnaire.

Analysis

There was less awareness of precursors to poor health. While hand washing came out as a common practice,

use of soap was not universal. Frequency and method of hand washing was also found to be sub-optimal.

While there was some information about house fly and mosquitoes, misconceptions around illnesses spread

by them were observed. Health awareness campaign remained the least observed source of information about

health and hygiene related issues.

Discussion

The key areas of improvement that have emerged from the survey are a) awareness of proper hygiene

including techniques of hand washing, b) awareness of vector borne diseases, with focus on low-cost, self

initiated control of intra-home mosquito breeding sites, and c) importance of sanitation and safe disposal of

human waste. It is suggested that these issues needs to be focused and reiterated in the performances.