Nonetheless, there is little information regarding handwashing
behaviour among the Vietnamese. One study
showed a low rate of handwashing with soap in rural
schoolchildren in northern Vietnam (15). In that study,
handwashing stations were not available or did not work
in 66% of the schools (15). The study also found that those
children with low school grades and from ethnic minorities
were less likely to wash their hands with soap (15).
The Vietnam Scaling Up Handwashing Behaviour study
conducted a baseline survey of 3,150 households to collect
data on the characteristics of household members, accessibility
to handwashing facilities, handwashing behaviour,
the prevalence of diarrhoea and respiratory infection in
children, and child growth and development. The findings
showed that 80% of households had a specific place for
handwashing with the presence of soap and water (16).
That study applied multistage random sampling to select
140 communes from two northern districts and one
southern district, but districts located in the middle of
Vietnam were not represented, thus limiting the generalisability
of the results.
Vietnam is a developing country, with 54 ethnic
groups, of which the Kinh account for 86% of the total
population of 86 million (17). Vietnam has 58 provinces,
4 municipalities, and a capital city. It is divided into six
geographic regions, and each region can be subdivided
into rural and urban living areas. Our study used data
from a large representative national sample to assess the
handwashing behaviour of Vietnamese households and
associated factors, taking into account different regional
and socio-economic conditions.