KNOWLEDGE AND PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE PRACTICES AGAINST EYE INFECTIONS AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS USING PUBLIC FINGER-TOUCH DEVICES IN UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Disease prevention is recognised as a key strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality of different types of diseases such as eye infections. Studies have raised questions about the fact that some people have knowledge of eye infections such as Conjunctivitis and yet remain skeptical about adopting various preventive measures. One major way of contracting conjunctivitis is through contact with infected devices such as public finger-touch machines. These devices include; Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Point Of Sales machine (POS), public computer at cyber cafes, among others. Little empirical studies have been carried out on the preventive measures to take against conjunctivitis especially through these devices. This study therefore investigated knowledge and preventive health care practices against infections of the eyes among postgraduate students using public finger-touch devices in the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional study design. Multistage sampling technique was adopted to select three hundred and sixty (360) University of Ibadan postgraduate students. Data were gathered through self-administered questionnaire developed based on the objectives of the study, comprising of five sections. The questionnaire elicited information on socio-demographic characteristics, prevalence, knowledge, preventive health care practices and sources of information. Knowledge was measured on a 19-point scale; scores of ≤ 6, >7 to 14, > 14 were categorised as poor, fair and good, respectively. Preventive health care practices was measured on a 12-point scale; ≤ 6 and > 6 were categorised as poor and good. Data were analysed using Chi-square analysis and Pearson correlation at 0.05 level of significance. Many (55.6%) of the respondents were females and the respondents’ mean age was 28.2±5.7 years. Majority (72.8%) belong to Yoruba ethnic group. Respondents’ mean knowledge and preventive health care practices were 11.7±1.5 and 20.8±5.2 respectively. Findings revealed that there exists significant relationship between prevalence of conjunctivitis and hygiene (X2 =9.54), immediate disinfection of public finger-touch devices (X2 =13.16), not sharing of sunshade (X2 =17.17), and not sharing of personal belongings (X2 =6.84). Also, it was discovered that there exists significant relationship between knowledge of conjunctivitis and preventive health care against conjunctivitis (r = .18). Further, type of programme (X2 =17.43) and monthly income (X2 =22.94) had significant relationship with preventive practice against conjunctivitis. Finally, social media (X2 =11.389) and television (X2 =5.92) had significant relationship with preventive health care practices against eye infections e.g., Conjunctivitis. It was concluded that knowledge, prevalence and source of information about conjunctivitis play significant roles in preventive practices against conjunctivitis. It is therefore recommended that considering the wide usage of public finger-touch devices in almost every aspect of daily living, efforts should be made especially by banks as well as public places that utilise public finger touch devices such as ATM, POS, among others to provide hand washing facilities that clients/customers can always make use of immediately after use and more importantly, there should be awareness creation to improve knowledge on eye infections.