Observations on handwashing practices of mothers and environmental conditions in Ona-Ara Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

During baseline survey before developing an educational intervention programme for modifying behaviours toward improved home management of diarrhoea, handwashing practices and environmental conditions of 549 mothers and health care-providers of 638 children aged less than 5 years in Ona-Ara Local Government Area (LGA) were observed, The aims of the study were to describe the patterns of maternal handwashing behaviour in relation to disposal of faeces and feeding of children, and to describe environmental conditions of the households, Handwashing behaviours after cleaning a child who has just defecated and after disposal of faeces were observed in 29.3% episodes, while handwashing before feeding the child occurred in 12.4% of observations, Handwashing in relation to these events occurred more frequently in periurban than in rural villages (p<0.001), These differences may be due to higher education of the periurban women compared to their rural counterparts, Handwashing was apparently not associated with distance from the water source or with the age groups of the children, Environmental observation revealed the presence of uncovered food (13%), human faeces (17%), animal dung (71%), animals (82%), and unprotected pit latrines (11%) in and around the house, There were significant rural-periurban differences in environmental conditions of the rural and periurban areas, It is recommended that the characteristics of areas selected for intervention be considered and important sub-group differences be identified before planning and implementing of such interventions.