Effectiveness of School-Based Hygiene Education Programmes in Urban Cameroon: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

School-based hygiene education programmes have been implemented in various urban settings to improve health outcomes among children. A comprehensive search strategy was employed using electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science) to identify relevant studies. Studies were selected based on predefined inclusion criteria, including specific focus on urban Cameroon and use of longitudinal cohort design. Prevalence of handwashing with soap increased from 35% to 60% among students participating in the hygiene education programmes over a year-long intervention. School-based hygiene education programmes showed significant improvement in hygiene practices, particularly handwashing with soap, among urban Cameroonian children. Further research should explore long-term effects and sustainability of these interventions, as well as potential variations based on age groups and socio-economic factors. Treatment effect was estimated with logit(pᵢ)=β₀+β^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.