ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To understand the status of pollution of cell phones of health care workers from neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) and explore the effect of frequency of regular disinfection on hygiene of cell phones so as to reduce the pollution of cell phones. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted for the status of use of cell phones among the health care workers, the samples were collected from the cell phones of three groups of health care workers that were disinfected with different frequencies by using sterile sponge sticks. Chi square test was carried out to analyze the impact of use habit of cell phones on the hygiene and the impact of different frequencies of disinfection on the hygiene of cell phones. RESULTS: A total of 46 health care workers were enrolled in the study, all of them used touch-screen cell phones, 97.83% of the health care workers used the cell phone when working, 17.39% used sometimes;13.04% of the health care workers never carried out hand hygiene after they used cell phones, only 1(2.17%) health care worker carried out hand hygiene every time after use;the frequency of regular cleaning of cell phones was less than once per day among 69.57% of the health care workers. The majority of the health care workers used disposable disinfectant wipes for the cleaning of cell phones;15.22% of the health care workers used disposable protective covers. The cell phones of 32 health care workers were sampled, the qualified rate of the samples was 34.38%, and pathogens were not isolated. The cell phones maintained clean by using the disposable protective covers. There was no significant difference in the qualified rate of hygiene among the cell phones with different frequencies of disinfection. CONCLUSION: The regular cleaning and disinfection of the cell phones may effectively reduce the bacterial colonization on the surfaces of cell phones, and the use of disposable protective covers may keep the cell phones relatively clean.