HEALTH
LESSON 2 Personal health
Introductio
n
Personal hygiene is caring for your own cleanliness of your body and clothes. Paying
attention to detail with your hygiene is a critical skill we must learn at an early age. Most kids are
"straight up" yucky, when it comes to hygiene. They have not been taught why we should keep
of bodies and general appearance clean cut. The benefits to our well being and the expected
perception by others is immeasurable, when it comes to cleanliness. These worksheets will help
acquaint students to general healthy hygiene topics they should ponder and make their own.
The exercise of proper personal hygiene is one of the essential parts of our daily life.
Many people in rural areas may not understand what good or bad personal hygiene is. The
prevention of communicable diseases, like diarrhea, trachoma and many others is highly
possible through the application of proper personal hygiene. You need to learn the proper
practice of personal hygiene and use this for the prevention and control of important public
health diseases that are prevalent in your locality. This study session will also help you to
understand the links between personal hygiene and one’s dignity, confidence and comfort.
Learning
Outcomes
Describe the public health importance of personal hygiene.
List and describe the components of personal hygiene.
Describe what acceptable and poor personal hygiene practices are.
Prioritise the components of personal hygiene that are critical for public health
concerns.
Preliminary
Activities My Personal Hygiene
Direction:
In practicing and observing your personal hygiene, understand the picture below
and do the following task below.
Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
1. Make a short promotional video on how to promote the personal hygiene to everyone.
2. Upload your video to your facebook account (do not tag anyone). Mention the name of your
instructor in the comment section.
3. Have a short description about the video.
4. Write the hashtag #mypersonalhygiene , #promotionalvideo
Preliminary
PERSONAL HYGIENE
Content
Personal hygiene is a concept that is commonly used in medical and public health
practices. It is also widely practiced at the individual level and at home. It involves maintaining
the cleanliness of our body and clothes. Personal hygiene is personal, as its name implies. In
this regard, personal hygiene is defined as a condition promoting sanitary practices to the self.
Everybody has their own habits and standards that they have been taught or that they have
learned from others. Generally, the practice of personal hygiene is employed to prevent or
minimize the incidence and spread of communicable diseases
Cleanliness should not be used in place of hygiene. Cleaning in many cases is
removing dirt, wastes or unwanted things from the surface of objects using detergents and
necessary equipment. Hygiene practice focuses on the prevention of diseases through the use
of cleaning as one of several inputs.
Public health importance of personal hygiene
Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
The knowledge and practice of personal hygiene are vital in all our everyday activities. The
purposes are:
Preventing faeco-orally transmitted diseases
The fingers may get contaminated with one’s own faeces, either directly or indirectly.
Activities during defecation and child bottom-washing are additional opportunities for the
contamination of the fingers that facilitate the transmission of infections.
Aesthetic values of personal hygiene
A person with clean hands is proud while eating because they feel confident of
preventing diseases. A teacher in a school is always happy to see their students with clean
faces and eyes, and dressed in clean clothes. A mother is mentally satisfied to feed her infant
with clean hands because she ensures the preservation of her child’s health. Generally,
cleaning oneself produces pride, comfort and dignity at home and in public places. Caring about
the way you look is important to your self-esteem.
Social impact
A person with poor personal hygiene might be isolated from friendship because telling
the person about the situation might be sensitive and culturally difficult. The success of a job
application or the chance of promotion could be affected by poor personal hygiene; no company
wants to be represented by someone who does not appear to be able to look after themselves
Components of personal hygiene
Body hygiene (skin care)
The body has nearly two million sweat glands. Moistened and
dried sweat and dead skin cells all together make dirt that sticks on to the
skin and the surface of underclothes. The action of bacteria decomposes
the sweat, thereby generating bad odour and irritating the skin. This is
especially observed in the groin, underarms and feet, and in clothing that
Scalp Tinea capitis (scalp
has absorbed sweat. Skin infections such as scabies, pimples and ringworm)
ringworm are results of poor body hygiene.
Oral hygiene (oral care)
The mouth is the area of the body most prone to collecting harmful bacteria and
generating infections. Our mouth mechanically breaks food into pieces. This process leaves
food particles (food debris) that stick to the surface of our gums and teeth. Our mouth cavity is
full of bacteria and is a good environment for bacterial growth.
Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
The decaying process that takes place on the surface of
the teeth eventually produces a build-up called plaque (a sticky
deposit on which bacteria grow) that is then converted into tartar
(a hard, yellowish, calcified deposit on the teeth, consisting of
organic secretions and food particles). The result is tooth decay.
In addition, unpleasant smelling breath (halitosis or stinking
odour), teeth and gum infections could be a result of poor oral
hygiene.
Hand washing (hand care)
The cleanliness of our hands is very important in all our daily activities. In our normal
activities our hands frequently get dirty. There are many situations in which microorganisms are
likely to attach to our hands along with the dirt. There are
many communicable diseases that follow the route of faeco-
oral transmission. Hand hygiene plays a critically important
role in preventing this transmission.
Hygienic hand washing involves the mechanical
removal of microorganisms from contaminated hand surfaces
using soap or detergent. Hand washing should involve more
than a quick rinse under a tap (faucet) or in running water.
Fingernail and toenail hygiene (nail care)
A nail is hard tissue that constantly grows. Long fingernails tend to
accumulate or trap dirt on the underside. The dirt could be as a
result of defecation or touching infected and contaminated surfaces.
Keeping na ils trimmed and in good shape weekly is important in
maintaining good health. Clip nails short along their shape but do
not cut them so close that it damages the skin. Razor blades and
fingernail cutters or scissors are used to cut nails. Nail cutters
should not be shared with others.
Ear hygiene
Ear wax accumulates in the ear canal that leads from the outer ear to
the ear drum. As the secretion comes out of the ear it co llects dust particles
from the air. Daily washing with soap and water is enough to keep the outer
ear clean. Do not reach farther than you can with your little finger into your
ear. Putting in hairpins, safety pins or blunt-edged things for cleaning
Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
purposes might harm the ear. If you feel wax has accumulated and is plugging your ears and
interfering with hearing, consult your doctor.
Hair hygiene (hair care)
The hair follicles from which the hair grows produce oil from the sebaceous glands that
keeps the hair smooth. The scalp (the skin covering the head) also has numerous sweat glands
and is a surface for the accumulation of dead skin cells. The oil, sweat and dead cells all add
together and can make the hair greasy and look dirty unless you wash it regularly.
Hair cleaning. Head hair is a good harbour for head lice (Pediculus
humanus capitis) and nits (eggs of head lice). The head louse is a tiny insect
that lives by sucking blood. Children are especially prone to lice infestation.
Lice spread from one head to another when there is close contact as in
school environments. They make the scalp itchy and are a cause of
annoyance, irritation and embarrassment. Shaving of the head hair is possible
in cases of heavy lice infestation. Sharing of blades with others, however,
should be discouraged.
Foot hygiene (foot care)
We spend a lot of time on our feet. Our feet sweat as we walk day and night and the
sweat accumulates on all foot surfaces and between the toes. The sweat may stain the shoes
and can produce an awful odour.
As well as bacteria, sweat also encourages f ungal growth
between the toes. This is called athlete’s foot. The symptoms of
athlete’s foot are scaly skin and sores or blisters, which start between
the toes but can often spread to the soles of the feet. This is a minor
irritation and often disappears by itself but sometimes these cracks and
sores become the site for other infections. The feet should be washed
daily, or at least twice weekly.
Armpit and bottom hygiene
These are body parts that easily get sweaty and where
ventilation is very poor. After puberty, our sweat gains a specific
and unpleasant odour which may be offensive to others. The
armpits and the bottom should be washed daily.
Anal cleansing is the hygienic practice of cleaning the
anus after defecation. The anus and buttocks may be cleansed
with clean toilet paper or similar paper products. Water may be
used. Hands must be washed with soap afterwards. The use of
Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
rags, leaves, stones, corn cobs, or sticks must be discouraged as these materials can damage
the skin.
Clothes hygiene
We usually have two layers of clothing. The internal
layer is underwear (or underclothes) such as pants, vest and
T-shirt. These are right next to our skin and collect sweat
and dead skin cells, which can stain the cloth. Bacteria love
to grow on this dirt and produce a bad smell in addition to
the specific odour of the sweat. Underwear must be washed
more frequently than the outer layer of clothing.
Clothes hygiene is an important aspect of one’s dignity. Changing used clothes for clean
ones every day is recommended. Washing dirty clothes requires adequate clean water,
detergents (solid or powdered soap) and washing facilities
Learning Task
Write the names of two communicable diseases or conditions and the recommended
frequency of washing or cleaning for the following respective components of personal hygiene.
Components Diseases/conditions Recommended frequency of cleaning
Eye hygiene
Hair hygiene
Body hygiene
Oral hygiene
Feet hygiene
Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
Hand hygiene
Clothes hygiene
Learning
Assessment
1. Why is the mouth a good environment for bacterial growth?
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2. Why is it inadvisable to share nail cutters?
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3. What causes sweat on the skin to produce an unpleasant odor?
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4. One day at a wedding, you observe some guests lining up for hand washing, while other
people have started to eat the feast without hand washing. Among those who washed
hands, some used soap, while others just used running water without soap. Are these
acceptable or poor hand washing practices?
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5. The purpose of hand washing is to get rid of microorganisms from our hands. Suppose
you want to educate family members on proper hand washing and demonstrate the
correct procedure to follow. What will you tell them to do? What are the critical situations
for proper hand washing they should be aware of?
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Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON
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Teaching Physical Education and Health in Elementary Grades
KARLA C. SALVALLON