FREQUENCY OF HANDWASHING POST-COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND REPORT OF DIARRHOEAL ILLNESSES AMONG A SAMPLE OF NIGERIANS

Abstract

Background: Adequate frequency of handwashing is one of the non-curative interventions 
recommended to prevent any diarrhoea-related illnesses. This study investigated frequency of 
handwashing post-COVID-19 pandemic, and report of diarrhoeal illnesses among a sample of 
Nigerians with an intent to encourage handwashing to avert diarrhoea-related illnesses. 
Methodology: This study used a cross-sectional research design. The population of this study 
was 224,818,168, while the accessible population was 9813, yielding a sample size of 367. A 
self-developed questionnaire with three sections was used in this study. Four experts validated 
the instrument, and a reliability index of 0.82 was obtained using the split-half method of 
reliability. Results: The average age of the respondents in the total approach was 28 ±5 years of 
age as the young Nigerians (12-45 years) and 58 ± 0 years of age as the old Nigerians (46-70 
years). The findings revealed that: 199 (54.22%) of the respondents were males 168 (45.78%) 
were females, 13 (3.54%) of them had no formal education, 91 (24.80%) had primary education, 
203 (55.31%) had their secondary education, and 60 (16.35%) of them had tertiary education. 
This study's findings further revealed a poor frequency of handwashing among a sample of 
Nigerians post-COVID-19 pandemic, and it was inferentially significant (x=1.54: p = 0.001). 
There was a high level of diarrhoeal illnesses among a sample of Nigerians post-COVID-19 
pandemic, and they significantly suffered diarrhoeal illnesses (x=1.53: p = 0.001). The 
descriptive proofs showed there was a gender difference in the frequency of handwashing, and 
diarrhoeal illnesses, but the hypothesis test showed the gender difference was not significant both 
in the frequency of handwashing, and diarrhoeal illnesses (p = 0.424 & p = 0.300) respectively. 
Conclusion and Recommendations: It was concluded that there was a poor frequency of 
handwashing, and a high level of diarrhoeal illnesses among a sample of Nigerians as gender did 
not produce much difference in the frequency of handwashing and diarrhoeal illnesses 
investigated. It is recommended among others that Nigerians should improve their daily 
frequency of handwashing to the recommended 6-10 times daily.