nationwide survey on some hygienic behaviors of iranian children and adolescents: the caspian-iv study

ABSTRACT

This study aims to assess the frequency of some hygienic behaviors that is, tooth brushing and hand-washing, in Iranian school students at national level. This nationwide study was conducted in 2011-2012 among 14,880 elementary, secondary and high school students who were selected by random cluster stratified multistage sampling from 30 provinces in Iran. We used the global school-based health survey questionnaire of the World Health Organization. The population of this survey consisted of 13,486 children and adolescents [participation rate of 90.6%] including 49.2% girls and 75.6% urban inhabitants. The mean age of participants was 12.5 years [12.3-12.6, 95% confidence interval] According to the self-report of students, 26.9% of them [20.2% of boys and 33.9% of girls] brushed their teeth more than once a day, 37.8% of boys and 42.1% of girls brushed their teeth once a day. In general, girls brushed their teeth more than boys. The frequency of those students who never brushed their teeth was twice in rural than in urban students [11.4% vs. 6.2%, respectively]. In total, 3.4% of the students stated that their school had not an appropriate place for washing hands after toilet, with three-fold higher frequency in rural than in urban schools [6.8% vs. 2.3%, respectively]. 85% of students [87% of girls vs. 83% of boys] reported that they had always washed their hands after toilet, 10.1% did it occasionally and 4.1% did not. This nationwide survey revealed that Iranian students have an acceptable level of hygienic behaviors both in urban and rural areas; however, still it is necessary to improve school health facilities and hygienic habits in Iranian students