The Meaning of "Hygiene" and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh

Rebeca Sultana; Nazmun Nahar; Nadia Ali Rimi; Sayeda Tasnuva Swarna; Shifat Khan; Md Khaled Saifullah; Humayun Kabir; Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen

doi:10.3390/ijerph19169823

The Meaning of "Hygiene" and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 9;19(16):9823. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19169823.

Authors

Rebeca Sultana^{1

2

3}, Nazmun Nahar⁴, Nadia Ali Rimi³, Sayeda Tasnuva Swarna³, Shifat Khan³, Md Khaled Saifullah³, Humayun Kabir³, Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen¹

Affiliations

¹ Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark.
² Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
³ icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.

Abstract

Improving hygiene practices is considered to be the single most cost-effective means of reducing the global health burden of infectious diseases. Hygiene promotion and disease prevention interventions often portray and promote "hygiene" from a biomedical perspective, which may not be optimally effective for achieving their goal of changing people's behaviors. This study aimed to educe the meaning of hygiene for the residents of a low-income community in Bangladesh and how that meaning shapes their personal hygiene practices. We conducted this study in the Tongi township in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from September 2014 to June 2016. The research team purposively selected 24 households. The team conducted day-long observations using the participant observation approach and in-depth interviews with specific members of the 24 households. The concept of "hygiene" had two separate meanings to the study participants: cleanliness and holiness. The participants reported that cleanliness was required to remove odors, grease, hot spices and dirt. The motivation for cleanliness was to feel fresh, avoid heavy feelings, feel light and feel comfortable. To maintain the holiness of the body, bathing and ablution needed to be performed following particular religious rules/rituals. The motivation of holiness was derived from their accountability to God. The participants also reported that the cleansing processes and methods for the body and the home for cleanliness reasons were also different from those for holiness reasons. The notion of "hygiene" was multidimensional for the residents of the low-income urban community in Bangladesh. Our study participants did not explicitly conceptualize a notion of hygiene that was based on the germ theory of diseases but rather a notion that was based on individual physical comfort and cultural belief systems. Future studies on the prevention of hygiene-related diseases should combine and link the biomedical aspect to religious and cultural rituals to promote improved hygiene practices.

Keywords: Bangladesh; diarrhea; hygiene; perception; water.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bangladesh
Family Characteristics
Humans
Hygiene*
Motivation
Poverty*

Grants and funding

This study was solely funded by the Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU) from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) under grant 12-040KU. The icddr,b gratefully acknowledges the commitment of the Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU) from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to its research efforts.