
Social practices have a very strong impact on hygiene behavior and standards in societies. These are molded by culture, tradition, social norms, and economic status, which in turn may promote or hinder proper hygiene. In this blog post, we will answer the question “How Does Social Practice Affect Hygiene“?
What are Social Practices
Examples of Social Practices:
Some social practices include:
- Greetings and Communication – Handshakes, hugs, or bowing to show respect.
- Food Customs – Eating with hands, using utensils, or specific meal preparation techniques.
- Hygiene Habits – Bathing routines, handwashing, and dental care customs.
- Family Roles and Responsibilities – Gender roles in household chores and parenting.
- Workplace Etiquette – Dress codes, punctuality, and professional interactions.
- Healthcare Practices – Seeking medical treatment, traditional healing methods, and vaccination habits.
- Social Gatherings – How communities interact during events, funerals, leisure activities, etc.
Social Practices That Can Affect Hygiene
Here are ten (10) social practices that can affect hygiene:
- Handwashing Habits: Some communities emphasize frequent handwashing, while others may neglect it due to a lack of awareness or resources.
- Toilet Usage and Sanitation: Open defecation is still common in some areas due to cultural norms or lack of proper sanitation facilities.
- Food Handling and Eating Practices: Some cultures eat with their hands without washing them properly, while others have strict hygiene rules for food preparation.
- Personal Grooming Traditions: Practices like regular bathing, nail trimming, and hair washing vary across cultures and affect personal hygiene.
- Menstrual Hygiene Management: Stigma and taboos in some societies can prevent women from accessing proper sanitary products and hygiene facilities.
- Sharing Personal Items: In some communities, sharing towels, razors, or drinking cups is common, which can spread infections.
- Childcare and Infant Hygiene: Social norms determine how often babies are bathed, how diapers are managed, and how feeding utensils are cleaned.
- Religious Cleansing Rituals: Some religions require washing before prayers, while others may have restrictions that affect hygiene behavior.
- Waste Disposal and Environmental Cleanliness: Social attitudes toward littering, sewage management, and waste disposal impact overall community hygiene.
- Hygiene in Social Gatherings: Large gatherings, such as festivals or markets, may encourage close contact without proper sanitation measures, increasing the risk of disease spread.
How Does Social Practice Affect Hygiene? Practical Examples
Here are practical examples of how these practices affect hygiene, both positively and negatively:
1. Handwashing Habits
Example: Handwashing before and after meals is a deep-seated practice in some cultures, reducing the spread of germs. However, communities that do not view handwashing as a common habitual activity may make one touch food with unsanitary hands which leads to foodborne illnesses.
Impact: Societies that promote regular handwashing have lower rates of diseases like diarrhea and respiratory infections.
2. Toilet Usage and Sanitation
Example: While in urban cities with high levels of hygiene awareness, people use toilets and properly dispose of waste; in rural areas where open defecation is a social norm, contamination of water sources with human waste causes cholera and other infections.
Impact: Lack of proper sanitation due to social habits leads to widespread diseases, while communities that prioritize toilet use maintain better hygiene.
3. Food Preparation and Eating Practices
Example: Some cultures wash fruits and vegetables before consumption, reducing the ingested bacteria. Other communities eat raw produce not washed, hence leading to infections such as E. coli and salmonella.
Impact: Clean food handling practices improve public health, while poor habits increase disease outbreaks.
4. Personal Grooming and Hygiene Routines
Example: In some cultures, bathing is a daily practice to be taken seriously, though in most regions with cold, the less one bathes is acceptable. Not bathing regularly would invite skin infection or odor effects in the human body.
Impact: Communities that emphasize cleanliness tend to have lower rates of hygiene-related illnesses.
5. Menstrual Hygiene Management
Example: There is much openness in most developed countries about menstrual hygiene and the free availability of sanitary products to women, while in many traditional societies, menstruation is taboo, where dangerous materials are used by women, hence leading to infections.
Impact: Good menstrual hygiene improves women’s health and confidence, while poor practices lead to infections and social exclusion.
6. Sharing Personal Items
Example: Some families and communities share towels, combs, or razors as a sign of closeness. However, this can spread infections like lice, fungal diseases, and even hepatitis.
Impact: Educating people about the risks of sharing personal hygiene items helps prevent the spread of infections.
7. Childcare and Infant Hygiene
Example: It ensures that the babies do not have a high rate of diarrhea; in societies that promote hand washing before feeding infants, babies do not have this risk. When hygiene is not emphasized, food is given to babies with unwashed hands or with unhygienic spoons causing infection.
Impact: Good infant hygiene reduces child mortality rates, while poor hygiene can lead to malnutrition and illness.
8. Religious Hygiene Practices
Example: In Islam, prayer requires ablution, or wudu, before the action, and therefore frequent washing of hands, face, and feet promotes personal hygiene. On the other hand, some religious tenets in more conservative communities frown upon modern hygiene products.
Impact: Religious practices that encourage cleanliness contribute to better hygiene, while those that limit hygiene habits may increase health risks.
9. Waste Disposal and Community Cleanliness
Example: Waste is well disposed of in countries where proper waste disposal is a social norm, and streets are clean; this reduces the spread of diseases. In places where littering is common, garbage piles up, attracting rodents and spreading infections.
Impact: Clean environments reduce disease risks, while poor waste management leads to outbreaks of illnesses like dengue fever and cholera.
10. Hygiene in Social Gatherings
Example: In a few other societies, people maintain physical distance and avoid close contact if they are sick. This limits the spread of infections. In cultures where people hug, share food, or shake hands even when sick, diseases such as flu and COVID-19 can spread.
Impact: Awareness of hygiene in public gatherings helps prevent epidemics, while lack of it increases transmission of infectious diseases.
Conclusion
Social practices directly affect hygiene, which relates to public health and welfare. The communities that practice cleanliness, sanitation, and hygiene have few health problems, whereas those dwelling in unsanitary living conditions often fall prey to many diseases. Good social mores can be inculcated through education and awareness programs, which may help improve hygiene standards and overall community health.
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