The Importance of Personal Hygiene

Hygiene generally refers to behaviors that can improve cleanliness and lead to good health, such as frequent hand washing, face washing, and bathing with soap and water.

In many areas of the world, practicing personal hygiene etiquette is difficult due to lack of clean water and soap. Many diseases can be spread if the hands, face, or body are not washed appropriately at key times.

The human body can provide places for disease-causing germs and parasites to grow and multiply. These places include the skin and in and around the openings to the body. It is less likely that germs and parasites will get inside the body if people have good personal hygiene habits.

Good personal hygiene is very important in today’s society for both health and social reasons. Keeping your hands and body clean is vital in stopping the development and spread of illness and infection. This simple habit doesn’t just benefit your health as it can help protect those around you too.  

Good personal hygiene is important for both health and social reasons. It entails keeping your hands, head and body clean so as to stop the spread of germs and illness. Your personal hygiene benefits your own health and impacts the lives of those around you, too.

Personal hygiene also has its social benefits. Since a good personal hygiene routine means caring for your body and washing regularly, it reduces the chance of body odour which can be embarrassing in social situations at work or at school.

(1) Good Personal Hygiene

Good personal hygiene habits include:

• washing the body often. If possible, everybody should have a shower or a bath every day. However, there may be times when this is not possible, for example, when people are out camping or there is a shortage of water
• If this happens, a swim or a wash all over the body with a wet sponge or cloth will do
• cleaning the teeth at least once a day. Brushing the teeth after each meal is the best way of making sure that gum disease and tooth decay are avoided. It is very important to clean teeth after breakfast and immediately before going to bed
• washing the hair with soap or shampoo at least once a week
• washing hands with soap after going to the toilet
• washing hands with soap before preparing and/or eating food. During normal daily activities, such as working and playing, disease causing germs may get onto the hands and under the nails. If the germs are not washed off before preparing food or eating, they may get onto the food
• changing into clean clothes. Dirty clothes should be washed with laundry soap before wearing them again
• hanging clothes in the sun to dry. The sun’s rays will kill some disease-causing germs and parasites
• turning away from other people and covering the nose and mouth with a tissue or the hand when coughing or sneezing. If this is not done, droplets of liquid containing germs from the nose and mouth will be spread in the air and other people can breathe them in, or the droplets can get onto food

Tips:

• Washing the body helps keep it free of disease-causing germs
• Cleaning teeth helps keep gums and teeth healthy.
• Washing hands after going to the toilet helps stop the spread of germs.
• Washing hands before preparing food helps keep germs out of our bodies.
• Washing hands before eating food helps stop germs getting into our bodies
• Washing clothes helps keep them free of disease-causing germs.
• Hanging clothes in the sun helps to kill some disease-causing germs and parasites.
• Covering the nose and mouth when sneezing helps stop the spread of germs.

Read Also: Importance of Sleep Hygiene

What does a good personal hygiene routine look like?

We know that a good personal hygiene routine is important, but where is a good place to start? We’ve broken down some of easy steps for you and your family to follow which will help you to stay clean and combat any nasty germs on the body that could lead to illness or bad odours.

Handwashing

The best place to start when thinking about personal hygiene is our hands. We are constantly using our hands; touching lots of different surfaces, greeting people, eating, typing at work or playing at school. So it should come as no surprise that our hands are one of the biggest carriers of germs.

Making sure you and your family practice good hand hygiene is one of the quickest and easiest ways to prevent illnesses such as coughs, colds, the flu and gastroenteritis (these can all be contracted or passed on through poor hand hygiene).  Some situations when you should always wash your hands include:

• Before eating or preparing food
• Before picking up a baby or infant
• After using the toilet
• After coughing or sneezing, or being around someone who is ill
• After handling animals

Dental Care

Looking after your teeth and practicing good oral hygiene will ward off gum disease, tooth decay and any nasty infections. Remember that you must always:

• Make sure you and your family ones brush your teeth twice a day – in the morning and before bed.
• Floss regularly
• Store your tooth brush in a clean, dry place and replace it regularly (once every three months and especially after illness)

Bathing

You should try to have a shower or bath daily using warm water and soap. During very hot weather it might even be a good idea to wash twice a day if possible. Daily washing is an important part of personal hygiene for a number of reasons:

• Washing daily with soap and warm water helps to prevent body odour because it will kill the bacteria on your skin responsible for the bad smell
• If you suffer from any skin infections, such as athlete’s foot, carefully washing and drying the affected areas daily can help the condition
• Washing your hair at least once a week using shampoo and conditioner can help to prevent head lice which can be very itchy and uncomfortable.
• If you have been out in the city, or caught in the rain taking a warm shower when you get home and using a soap will clean any harmful germs off your body.

Hygienic Clothes

Dirt and bacteria can build up on your clothes too. As part of your personal hygiene routine it is important to take care of your clothes by washing and changing them regularly, especially if you or a family member has been unwell.

Personal hygiene doesn’t have to be difficult. Once you have a good personal hygiene routine in place it quickly becomes habit, so it is very important that you set a good example for your children to follow and encourage them to take care when it comes to their personal hygiene.

Read Also: Personal Hygiene: Benefits, Creating a Routine, In Kids, and More

2) Overcrowding

When there are too many people in any house, the likelihood of them getting disease is greater than if the house is not overcrowded. This is because people in an overcrowded house will be much closer to each other and it is therefore easier for any germs to spread from one to another. For example:

• sneezing and coughing in crowded rooms makes it easier to spread cold and flu germs
• sharing towels can spread trachoma germs and other germs which cause eye infections (runny or sore eyes)
• several children sleeping in the same bed makes it easier to spread a scabies infection
• Overcrowding helps spread germs and parasites such as scabies.

Each house is designed to allow a particular number of people to live there comfortably. This number will depend upon the number and size of the rooms, especially bedrooms, and the size of other facilities such as the sewage system and washing and cooking areas.

If the number of people living in the house is greater than the number it was designed for, these facilities will not be able to cope properly. For example, large numbers of people using the toilet may mean that the septic tank will not be big enough to take and treat the additional load of sewage.

For good health and comfort, the number of people who should live in a house depends upon the factors outlined below:

a) The number and size of bedrooms

While most people who live permanently in a house will have a bedroom to themselves or share one with one or two other people, other rooms are often used as bedrooms.

The number of people who should sleep in a room will depend upon the amount of air which is available to each person. The law requires that each adult person has at least 13 cubic metres of air and each child has at least 10 cubic metres of air in a sleeping area.

b) The type and size of the sewage system

Usually, a household septic tank system with 2 round tanks caters for a maximum of ten people.

c) The size and availability of other facilities

The facilities within the house may not be able to handle all of the demands placed on them by the occupants. For example, the hot water system may not be able to produce enough hot water, or the amount of food to be chilled is too great for the refrigerator to hold.

In Indigenous communities, overcrowding in houses occurs for a number of reasons, such as:

• there not being enough houses for the number of people who live in the community
• families not being able to afford to pay rent on a house of their own and needing to live with relatives to share the cost
• people visiting relatives and staying for a long time
• visitors coming to stay so that they can attend special events such as funerals

It is important that EHPs remember that overcrowding is a significant environmental health problem in many communities.

Here are more personal hygiene books and related resources to guide you further:

Reference