According to two studies published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), the official publication of APIC – the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, better knowledge of hand hygiene positively corresponds to a decreased risk of transmitting infection among both healthcare workers (HCW) and elementary school children.
Anne McLaughlin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University conducted the first study using 71 nurses, infection preventionists and hospital environmental services managers to partake in a national survey judging hand hygiene knowledge and beliefs.
Based on their level of hygiene knowledge and their internal health locus of control (internal-HLC), which is a measurement of how much influence they assume to have in controlling the spread of infection, each HCW assessed 16 real-life simulations designed to test their perceived risk of infection.
The result revealed that despite research proving that touching one contaminated surface (known as a fomite) can spread bacteria to up to the next seven surfaces touched, all participants across the board felt that surfaces were safer to touch than patient skin.
The authors comment:
“Despite the dangers that fomites present, this knowledge may not be common enough among HCWs for them to understand the level of risk when touching surfaces and then touching patients.”
According to a study published in the August issue of AJIC, school programs encouraging school children to wash their hands may have a lasting effect in reducing school absences.
In 2008, Infection preventionist Inge Nandrup-Bus, RN carried out a study of a three-month intervention to reduce student absenteeism through increased hand hygiene at two elementary schools in Denmark, comparing her results to a similar study she performed in 2007. The only significant change between the studies was that the Intervention School (IS) and the Control School (CS) were reversed for the second trial.
Over the three months of the intervention at the IS, 324 pupils aged 5-14 were each given one lesson in hand disinfection theory and practice and directed to disinfect their hands using ethanol gel three times throughout the school day, resulting in a 66% decrease in pupils with four or more days of absence and a 20% increase in children with zero absences over the 2007 data from the same school.
In contrast, the CS, which was the intervention school the previous year, showed no significant changes between 2007 and 2008. The findings highlight distinctively, that merely by increasing hand hygiene education even with low participation rates (20% in 2007 and 21% in 2008), a significant long-term impact on spreading infection can be achieved.
The author commented:
“Regular training in HW (hand washing) and HD (hand disinfection) would be a simple, low cost action with very significant impact on reducing infectious illness absence periods among pupils.”
Written by Petra Rattue