ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING PERSONAL HYGIENE PRACTICES AMONG SELECT ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN JOS SOUTH LGA PLATEAU STATE.

Over the years, the communication of personal hygiene among adolescent students in secondary schools has not been given due attention. It has been noted that personal hygiene deficiency diseases have been found to be a serious public health problem in a developing country like Nigeria. Adolescent students are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of lack of basic personal hygiene. Therefore, this study is focused at assessing communication of personal hygiene practice among adolescents in selected secondary schools of Jos South, Plateau State. The study deployed the Health Belief model which was developed exclusively to explain health-related behaviours in the early 1950’s by a group of social psychologists in the U.S public services. The study adopted a mixed research approach by using Questionnaire, Focused Group Discussion and Key informant interview. Findings from the study revealed that there is low understanding of personal hygiene among students in Educare Chosen High School and Government secondary school Hwolshe. It also revealed that the major channels of communicating personal hygiene to the students in both schools are Physical and Health Education and the Assembly ground, which have proven to be less effective in influencing personal hygiene practice among adolescents in the selected schools. More so, financial constraint was discovered to be a factor militating against good personal hygiene practice. Therefore, in order to mitigate these challenges, the study recommends that the use of participatory health talk forum that is gender sensitive could help in facilitating the adoption of good personal hygiene behaviour amongst students. The study concludes that behavioural change communication can only be effective if participatory approaches are deployed.