Abstract

AIM: This study was carried out as a qualitative research in order to determine hand-washing practices of women living a Health Center in the town of Gölbaşı, Ankara.
METHOT: The population of the research was made up of married women living in Number 2 Health Care Center in the town of Gölbaşı, Ankara. The current study is a qualitative research and carried out through purposive sampling method. Data was collected through in-depth interview method for the descriptive statistics, number, percentile frequency and mean were used for the descriptive statistics and content analysis was used for the analysis of qualitative data.
RESULTS: The mean age of the women included in the research was =29.86. It was found that 40% of the women were graduates of a primary school and 86.7% had a nuclear family structure. Almost half of the families experienced frequent diarrhea, and almost all of the families often had a common cold / flu. Eighty percent of the women thought that hand washing protected them against common cold, and 66.7% reported that it protected urinary tract and genital area against diseases. On the other hand, 66.7% of the women reported that they did not know anything about the fact that using a towel commonly causes infections. Forty percent of the women expressed that they were able to make the family members wash their hands before meals, 73% did it after toilet while 40% was able to make them wash their hands when they came home.
CONCLUSION: In this study it was determined that women do not pay enough attention to hand-washing. Depending on these results, it is suggested that in this first step, educational studies about the hand-washing should be made widespread.

Key words: Hand-washing, Woman Health, Behaviour

Article Language: Turkish English