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Effect of Public Swimming-Pool Hygiene Education on Safe Swimming Practices among Young Adults in Nigeria

Abstract

Public swimming pools provide recreational, social, and physical activity opportunities for young adults in Nigeria, but inadequate pool hygiene and unsafe swimming behaviours may increase the risk of exposure to infectious agents, water contamination, and other recreational water-related health hazards. Young adults may contribute to swimming-pool contamination through practices such as swimming while experiencing illness, failing to shower before entering the pool, improper disposal of waste, urinating or defecating in pool water, inadequate personal hygiene, and failure to follow established pool safety rules. Limited awareness of appropriate swimming-pool hygiene and safe swimming practices may increase the risk of water contamination and preventable health problems. Public swimming-pool hygiene education provides an opportunity to improve awareness of personal hygiene, pool rules, contamination prevention, and responsible behaviour in recreational water environments. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of public swimming-pool hygiene education on safe swimming practices among young adults in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and Social Ecological Model. The Health Belief Model explains how young adults' perceptions of susceptibility to recreational-water-related illnesses, perceived severity of associated health risks, perceived benefits of appropriate swimming-pool hygiene, perceived barriers, and cues to action may influence their swimming behaviours. Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes observational learning, behavioural modelling, self-efficacy, reinforcement, and environmental influences in developing and maintaining safe swimming practices. The Social Ecological Model emphasizes the influence of individual, interpersonal, facility-level, community, environmental, and regulatory factors on swimming-pool hygiene and safety. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how public swimming-pool hygiene education may influence safe swimming practices among young adults in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise young adults aged 18–35 years who use selected public swimming pools across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, urban areas, swimming-pool facilities, and eligible young adult users. Public swimming-pool hygiene education will be assessed using indicators such as exposure to pool hygiene education sessions, frequency and duration of education, awareness of pool hygiene rules, knowledge of showering before swimming, understanding of illness-related swimming restrictions, awareness of appropriate toileting practices, knowledge of personal hygiene, awareness of water contamination risks, knowledge of pool safety rules, and exposure to facility-based hygiene reminders and educational materials. Safe swimming practices will be assessed using indicators such as showering before entering the pool, avoiding swimming when experiencing diarrhoea or other potentially transmissible illnesses, using appropriate toilet facilities, avoiding urination or defecation in the pool, maintaining personal hygiene, following pool rules, avoiding unsafe behaviour in and around the pool, appropriate disposal of waste, avoiding consumption of food or drinks in restricted pool areas, and following facility instructions regarding pool use. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, safe swimming practice assessment tools, pool-user observation checklists where appropriate, swimming-pool hygiene records, educational programme records, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental intervention is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participants' demographic characteristics, swimming frequency, exposure to pool hygiene education, knowledge of pool hygiene, and safe swimming practices. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the effect of public swimming-pool hygiene education on safe swimming practices. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, safe swimming practice scores before and after the educational intervention may be compared with those of a comparison group to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that public swimming-pool hygiene education has a significant positive effect on safe swimming practices among young adults in Nigeria. Young adults exposed to structured and practical pool hygiene education are expected to demonstrate better compliance with appropriate swimming and hygiene practices than young adults without comparable exposure. Education may improve awareness of the importance of showering before swimming, avoiding swimming while ill, using appropriate toilet facilities, preventing contamination of pool water, and following established facility safety rules. Practical demonstrations and repeated visual reminders may further reinforce responsible behaviour among pool users. However, inadequate pool management, poor facility maintenance, overcrowding, limited availability of showers and changing facilities, weak enforcement of pool rules, insufficient hygiene signage, and poor water-quality monitoring may reduce the effectiveness of education alone. The study therefore expects accessible, practical, continuous, and facility-specific swimming-pool hygiene education, supported by appropriate pool management and environmental health monitoring, to contribute significantly to improved safe swimming practices among young adults in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on recreational water safety, swimming-pool hygiene, environmental health education, safe swimming practices, waterborne disease prevention, health promotion, injury prevention, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Environment, state ministries responsible for health and environmental sanitation, local government authorities, swimming-pool operators, environmental health officers, public health practitioners, healthcare professionals, sports and recreation organizations, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for improving recreational water safety. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for strengthening swimming-pool hygiene education, improving hygiene signage and user information, promoting appropriate pre-swimming hygiene, strengthening enforcement of pool hygiene rules, improving water-quality monitoring, enhancing facility maintenance, and developing sustainable public swimming-pool health and safety interventions across Nigeria.

Keywords: Public swimming-pool hygiene education, safe swimming practices, young adults, swimming-pool hygiene, recreational water safety, waterborne disease prevention, environmental health, health education, health promotion, Nigeria, public health.