What is it about?
Hand hygiene is a key public health issue, since poor water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and practices lead to high morbidity in children under five. This study focuses on handwashing practices and disease occurrence among breastfeeding mothers in two slum settlements in Kathmandu along the Bishnumati River. A cross-sectional study using a semi-structured questionnaire was conducted with 127 breastfeeding mothers having at least one child.
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Why is it important?
The majority of lactating mothers demonstrated good knowledge and appropriate practices in handwashing; many (81.1%) had good handwashing practices. Significant associations were found between maternal education level and childhood illness (p < 0.001); the prevalence of illness among children whose mothers had only basic education was 26% higher than children who had mothers with secondary education. Family income and handwashing practice were also significantly associated with child health (p < 0.01). Notably, 73.2% of children had experienced diarrhoea in the past 6 months.
Perspectives
Some public health solutions are relatively simple! Here we need to improve hand-hygiene education programmes, particularly for lactating mothers, and improving WASH [=WAter, Sanitation & Hygiene] infrastructure are necessary, as well as promoting affordable handwashing solutions in urban slums.
Prof. Edwin R van Teijlingen
Bournemouth University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Exploring handwashing knowledge and practice among lactating mothers in Kathmandu's slum communities, Nepal, Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, September 2025, IWA Publishing,
DOI: 10.2166/washdev.2025.084.
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