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One of the most significant and well-publicized prevention practises for Covid 19 is hand cleanliness. Face masks and social withdrawal are useless without good hand hygiene. The healthcare professionals can only intervene and raise awareness to enhance the public's hand hygiene practises after they are aware of the public's perceptions of and barriers to hand hygiene. A private dental facility had 150 outpatients participate in this cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Ten questions addressing various facets of hand hygiene and perceived obstacles made up the survey. The information from Google Forms was then imported into SPSS Version 15 using Excel. Data were presented as frequencies and percentages after the chi square test, and a p value of 0.05 or less was regarded as statistically significant.. In our study, 92.62 percent of outpatients at a private facility said that they continue to take measures against COVID19. 83.89% of our patients agreed that good hand hygiene habits are crucial for preventing COVID19. Whereas 38.26% of outpatients claimed to only wash their hands for 30 seconds, 33.56% of outpatients claimed to wash their hands for a full minute. In contrast to the 48.32 percent who said hand sanitizer is best and important for hand hygiene, 51.68 percent of outpatients said soap and water is best and essential for hand hygiene. According to the study's findings, the participants had a reasonable understanding of hand hygiene and its significance. Yet, there is a need for greater awareness of the finishing details on touch surfaces. Thus, it is advised that media-based propaganda and awareness campaigns have a positive impact and should be kept up, with a stronger focus on the finer points. © 2023 IEEE.
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Background: Hand washing is vital to prevent the spread of the agent from person to person during epidemic periods and to reduce the impact of the pandemic on people's lives, health, livelihoods and health system. Objective: This study was conducted to examine the hand hygiene behavior of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was completed between 15 October 2020 and 30 November 2020 via Google Forms with 627 adult individuals. The data were collected with a questionnaire form created by the researchers as a result of the relevant literature review. Results: During the pandemic period, 91.4% of the participants stated that the habit of hand washing increased. It was observed that handwashing status of participants during the pandemic process changed in terms of age group, gender and those who considerg hand hygiene important in combating the epidemic (p<.05). When handwashing behavior of the participants during the COVID-19 pandemic was examined, it was found that only 14.5% of the participants washed their hands before entering a toilet. Nearly all of the participants (96.7%) stated that they wash their hands after using a toilet, 92.7% after coming from outside, 84.1% after shopping, and more than half (52.2%) after meeting with friends or relatives. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, awareness of adult individuals about the importance of proper hand hygiene has changed. Handwashing behaviors of individuals in the society change during the pandemic period and this requires the attention of health professionals in particular. © 2023, Dokuz Eylul University. All rights reserved.
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Introduction: Respiratory infections including Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection spread through droplet infections. Hence standard precautionary measures like handwashing and use of masks are essential to prevent transmission of these infections in healthcare setting. Aim: To determine the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on awareness level of resident doctors on prevention of spread of infective respiratory secretions. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among two subsequent batches (year 2019-20 and 2020-21) of resident doctors at a medical college hospital, from February 2020 to September 2020. The 2019-2020 batch of resident doctors worked as residents from March 2019 to March 2020 and were considered as pre-COVID-19 batch. The 2020-2021 batch of resident doctors had their training period from April 2020 to April 2021 and were considered the COVID-19 batch. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire consisting of 14 questions to evaluate the awareness on prevention of spread of infective respiratory secretions was administered. The responses were evaluated, marks awarded and summated. Results: The response rate of pre-COVID-19 batch was 85% and that of COVID-19 batch was 86%. The mean (standard deviation) score obtained by the COVID-19 batch was 9.91 +/- 3.42 which was significant higher than that obtained by the pre-COVID-19 batch which was 7.1 +/- 1.83. The score obtained by COVID-19 batch for 11/14 questions was significantly higher compared to the pre-COVID-19 batch. Conclusion: A significant improvement was seen in the knowledge level in prevention of spread of infective respiratory secretions among resident doctors after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Introduction: Hand Hygiene is an essential method to preclude infections in all healthcare environments. Education is essential to advance hand hygiene performance amongst nurses and nursing students. The aim is to find out the usefulness of a self-paced online hand hygiene course on the knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing students by evaluating student performance in post-tests. Methods: The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which data were collected using two questionnaires from undergraduate nursing students and they were exposed to interactive lectures and online activities related to risks, benefits, and key recommendations for hand hygiene. The following two surveys were used, Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire for Health-Care Workers;and Handwashing Assessment Inventory. Data were collected through pre-post tests. Results: Nurses reported a significant change for the better in hand hygiene comprehension, attitude, and performance of hand hygiene behaviours. The present study revealed a significant increase in hand hygiene knowledge belief, attitude, and outcomes among university students after participating in the training intervention. The majority of participants in the pretest rated their knowledge level as poor. Conclusion: Interactive training and online learning courses on hand hygiene could be used to influence the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of students to bring about the desired change in hand hygiene practice. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Malaysian Journal of Medicine & Health Sciences is the property of Universiti Putra Malaysia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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Úvod: Hygiena rukou je považována za jedno z nejdůležitějších a nejúčinnějších opatření v prevenci a kontrole šíření infekcí. Hraje také zásadní roli při snižování výskytu infekcí spojených se zdravotní péčí. Hlavním cílem je posoudit dodržování hygieny rukou - se zvláštním zaměřením v používání rukavic při poskytování péče v lůžkových zařízeních. Metody: Průřezový dotazníkový průzkum dodržování standardů bezpečné zdravotní péče v lůžkových zařízeních na území České republiky v roce 2018 před pandemií COVID-19. Osloveno bylo celkem 80 lůžkových poskytovatelů zdravotních služeb v České republice. Odpovědi byly hodnoceny na 6stupňové škále od "vždy" (100 bodů) do "nikdy" (0 bodů). Analýza dat byla provedena pomocí IBM SPSS Statistics verze 22. Výsledky: Dotazník vyplnilo 2 049 zdravotnických pracovníků z 80 oslovených lůžkových zdravotnických zařízení na území České republiky. Respondenti byli rozděleni dle medicínského oboru. Respondenti pracovali v interních oborech (43 %), chirurgických oborech (28 %), na psychiatrii (14 %), v zařízeních dlouhodobé lůžkové péče (9 %) a v ostatních nezařazených oborech (6 %). Závěr: Předkládaná studie ověřila dobrou úroveň v dodržování hygienických standardů u poskytovatelů lůžkové péče v České republice. Identifikovány byly rozdíly v metodickém opatření pro hygienu rukou v České republice a mezinárodních doporučených postupech, které jsou podloženy vysokou úrovní vědeckých důkazů. Vhodným opatřením by bylo zavést národně akceptované klinické doporučené postupy s přesně vymezenou úrovní důkazů.Alternate :Introduction: Hand hygiene is considered one of the most important and effective measures for infection prevention and control. It also plays a vital role in reducing healthcare-associated/acquired infections. The main goal is to assess hand hygiene compliance - with a special focus on using gloves when providing care in inpatient settings. Methods: A cross-sectional survey on compliance with hand hygiene was conducted in health care facilities in the Czech Republic in 2018 before the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants were from 80 inpatient health care providers in the Czech Republic. Responses were scored on a 6-level scale, from "always" (100 points) to "never" (0 points). Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 22. Results: The questionnaire was filled in by 2,049 health care personnel from 80 inpatient health care facilities in the Czech Republic. Respondents were further divided according to the medical specialty. Respondents worked in the field of internal medicine (43%), surgical fields (28%), psychiatry (14%), long-term care facilities (9%), and other non-classified fields (6%). Conclusions: The presented study verified the good level of declared compliance with hygiene standards in inpatient healthcare providers in the Czech Republic. Significant differences were found between the observed hand hygiene measures established in the Czech Republic and international best practices based on a high scientific evidence level. An appropriate measure would be to establish national clinical best practices based on convincing scientific evidence at the national level.
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Hand hygiene (HH) is a crucial factor for reducing Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) in the hospital setting. The current analysis was created to create an intervention methodology to enhance hand hygiene compliance among hospital personnel in a healthcare setting. Covid-19 disease epidemic has additional stressed the need for world-wide development in hand hygiene compliance by the healthcare personnel. Healthcare Associated Infections have been a hot issue for several time periods and Healthcare Associated Infections are the most common adverse results due to the delivery of medical care and treatment. There is unanimity that hand hygiene is the extremely successful way to avoid healthcare associated infections. As healthcare systems fluctuate widely, prevention approaches must be designed appropriately. Hand hygiene, however, remains relevant in all settings, and World Health Organization (WHO) is strongly endorsing alcohol-based hand rubs to interrupt transmission. Nevertheless, very minimal compliance rate amongst the healthcare staff have been reported worldwide. Infected surfaces, especially those that are touched repeatedly by the patient's surroundings, act as reservoirs for pathogens and cause towards pathogen transmission. Therefore, healthcare disinfection requires a thorough approach whereby several strategies may be applied together, risk-based methodologies, to decrease the possibility of HAIs for the patients. In this paper more than 200 articles have been studied from 2016 to 2021 time period and various surveys have been conducted to analyze hand hygiene intervention and studied the various factors involving the patient's situation, medication management behavior of several units, and the type of healthcare employees during and before the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this study, we evaluated overall hand hygiene compliance rate including the intake of hand wash liquid agent, alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR), the paper wipes, medical waste consumption and personal protective equipment's (gloves, masks etc.) before and after Covid-19 intervention to improve the hand hygiene compliance rate in Abu Dhabi hospitals. © 2023 Author(s).
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INTRODUCTION: Since COVID-19 pandemic spread, strict preventive measures were adopted to reduce the risk of transmission. Antiseptic dispensers for hand hygiene were diffusely available for patients and hospital staff. To investigate the prophylactic role played by the strict antiseptic rules adopted during pandemic, the rates of nosocomial urinary infections in 2019 and 2020 were compared. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients' clinical pre-operative characteristics, symptoms, fever, and laboratory data were recorded pre- and post-operatively. Urological surgery was classified in five categories: 1. major surgery 2. upper urinary tract endoscopy, 3. lower urinary tract endoscopy, 4. minor surgery, and 5. Nephrostomy and ureteral stenting. Clavien-Dindo complication score was used. Statistical analysis was performed with R 3.4.2 software. RESULTS: Out of 495 patients, 383 (57.1%) underwent surgical intervention in pre-pandemic March-May 2019 period and 212 (42.9%) in the same pandemic 2020 interval. Preoperatively, 40 (14.1%) and 11 (5.2%) and 77 (27.3%) and 37 (17.5%) patients had fever (p < 0.003) and leukocytosis (p < 0.02), in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Urine culture was positive in 29 (10.2%) and 13 (6.2%) patients respectively (p = 0.22). Post-operatively, 54 (19.1%) and 22 (10.4%) patients and 17 (6.1%) and 2 (0.6%) patients showed fever (p < 0.003) and positive urineculture (p < 0.03), in 2019 and 2020 respectively. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Preoperative and post-operative clinical and laboratory signs of nosocomial urinary infection showed a statistically significant lower incidence during the pandemic period in 2020. This observation could be ascribed to the strong preventive measures, to the medical staff high adherence to hygiene and the diffuse availability of hand sanitizers.
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Anti-Infective Agents, Local , COVID-19 , Cross Infection , Urinary Tract Infections , Urinary Tract , Humans , Cross Infection/epidemiology , Cross Infection/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics/prevention & control , Urinary Tract Infections/epidemiology , Urinary Tract Infections/prevention & controlABSTRACT
Next to the known nosocomial infections, the COVID-19 pandemic was an example for the need for the immediate implementation of functioning hygiene concepts and knowledge transfer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the self-assessment of ehealth literacy in terms of finding, using and critically evaluating health information and theoretical and practical hygiene awareness on a voluntary participation basis at the Jena University Hospital in 2022. The well-established and validated eHEALS and WHO questionnaire on hand hygiene (HH) knowledge for healthcare workers was completely filled by 204 participants (191 medical students; 13 healthcare trainees). In a second step, after the questionnaire, 77 participants completed additional asynchronous, digitally guided self-training using DesiCoach 2Go. In the end, a synchronous hand disinfection was carried out in the hospital using Visirub, by separating it into a group without (n = 191; with and without HH questionnaire) and a group with (n = 31; with HH questionnaire) previously completed self-training. For the eHL, the respondents tended to have a positive self-assessment of finding, using and critically evaluating health information. The voluntary participants of the practical hand disinfection who had received self-training were able to achieve significantly better results (p = 0.0047), resulting in fewer wetting gaps in a subsequent performance with Visirub than those who had not received digital self-training. The survey showed that healthcare-related participants belonging to the "digital native" generation have above-average knowledge on HH and profit by digitally guided self-training.
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Purpose of Review: Poor hand hygiene is well documented as a factor in healthcare-associated infections and excellent rates of hand hygiene remains elusive. Recent Findings: There is increased use of universal or increased gloving to minimize hand contamination, but its use does not replace hand hygiene opportunities. There is significant interest in electronic hand hygiene monitoring systems, but they are not without their unique issues. Behavioral psychology remains a significant factor in motivating hand hygiene behaviors; even in COVID-19, hand hygiene rates initially improved but trended down back to baseline while still dealing with the pandemic. Summary: More emphasis should be placed on the how to properly perform hand hygiene and why it is so important, as well as the role of gloves, is needed. Continued investment and awareness of their status as role models from both system leadership and senior healthcare providers are needed.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has posed the greatest threat to global health over the last three years. Due to the temporary shortage of appropriate vaccines, a systematic change in human behaviour is necessary to keep the spread of the virus under control, increasing the quality of basic hygiene practices, such as systematic hand hygiene. Nudges are increasingly used in public health interventions to promote critical preventive hygiene behaviours. This review aimed to investigate the effect and the characteristics of nudges on hand hygiene, as a COVID-19 preventive measure. We systematically reviewed the relevant literature from January 2008 to November 2020. A total of 15 articles met the inclusion criteria. The findings of this review showed that most of the nudging interventions had a positive effect on hand hygiene. Nudges should be included in the existing and future public health interventions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and future pandemics, rather than being an alternative and unconventional tool for public health policies.
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This study investigated the association between area deprivation level and performance of handwashing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korean adults. This study used data from the 2015 Population and Housing Census data to measure area deprivation level. The 2020 Korea Community Health Survey was used for all other variables, including hand hygiene behavior (August through November 2020). The association between area deprivation level and practice of handwashing behavior was examined using multilevel logistic regression analysis. The study population comprised 215,676 adults aged 19 years or above. Compared to the least area deprived group, the most deprived group was more likely to not wash hands after using the restroom (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.13-1.82), after coming home (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.43-2.39), and using soap (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.29-1.84). The findings suggest the importance of considering area deprivation in implementing policies that promote handwashing, particularly during a pandemic.
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Objective: To investigate how well do the middle school students in Wuhan know and perform COVID-19 prevention behaviors during the epidemic, and to identify the influencing factors that impact the wellness of students' performance on mask-wearing, hand washing, and other health-related behaviors. Method: We surveyed 21 middle schools in Wuhan using a self-developed questionnaire, evaluated the students' prevention behaviors, and used logistic regression to identify the influencing factors. Results: We investigated 6 858 students with an average age of (14. 5±1. 5) years, including 3 584 male students (accounting for 52. 3%). Grade, parents' education, and submission time are significantly related to the wellness of the three types of health behaviors (P<0. 05). Junior high school students showed a better performance in handwashing and other health-related behaviors than senior high school students (P<0. 05). Parents' education showed a significant impact on students' prevention behaviors in all aspects (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Enhancement is needed for the education of prevention behaviors among middle school students. Schools should pay more attention to students whose parents are of the lower level of education. © 2023 Editorial Board of Medical Journal of Wuhan University. All rights reserved.
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Background and Objectives: The concept of health literacy shaping attitudes and behaviours is critical in preventing and controlling person-to-person transmission in the spread of infectious diseases. Health literacy is a determinant of health;it impacts the effective use of health behaviour by empowering individuals and communities to prevent epidemics like Coronavirus and Monkeypox. The study aims to assess the association between health-protective behavior and health literacy for preventing the spread of the Coronavirus during the pandemic in adolescents of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in public and private schools of Rawalpindi, 387 middle and high school students. Multiple linear regression was used to find the association between the main explanatory variable, health literacy and the outcome variables, health knowledge and health behaviour. The study was conducted in ten different sessions, each requiring one hour from 1st August to 31st October 2021, the self-administered questionnaire was used as a data collection tool, and a total of 387 participants took part in the study. Data were entered and analysed using SPSS Version 27. Results: Multiple linear regression analyses showed a significant association between health literacy and health knowledge (= 0.04, 95% CI = 0.005– 0.069, p=0.023), and between health literacy and health behaviour (= 0.07, 95% CI = 0.048–0.099, p<0.001). Conclusion: Health literacy is significantly associated with increased hand hygiene knowledge and behaviour. Government should prioritise health literacy policy and practice and make it more sustainable, effective, and integral using the multi-level targeted approach for the national educational sector. © 2023, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Hand hygiene is obligatory for all healthcare workers and vital for patient care. During COVID-19, adequate hand washing was among recommended measures for preventing virus transmission. A general hand-washing procedure consisting several steps is recommended by World Health Organization for ensuring hand hygiene. This process can vary from person to person and human supervision for inspection would be impractical. In this study, we propose computer vision-based new methods using 12 different neural network models and 4 different data models (RGB, Point Cloud, Point Gesture Map, Projection) for the classification of 8 universally accepted hand-washing steps. These methods can also perform well under situations where the order of steps is not observed or the duration of steps are varied. Using a custom dataset, we achieved 100% accuracy with one of the models, and 94.23% average accuracy for all models. We also developed a real-time robust data acquisition technique where RGB and depth streams from Kinect 2.0 camera were utilized. Results showed that with the proposed methods and data models, efficient hand hygiene control is possible.
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We present a passive and non-intrusive sensing system for monitoring hand washing activity using structural vibration sensing. Proper hand washing is one of the most effective ways to limit the spread and transmission of disease, and has been especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior approaches include direct observation and sensing-based approaches, but are limited in non-clinical settings due to operational restrictions and privacy concerns in sensitive areas such as restrooms. Our work introduces a new sensing modality for hand washing monitoring, which measures hand washing activity-induced vibration responses of sink structures, and uses those responses to monitor the presence and duration of hand washing. Primary research challenges are that vibration responses are similar for different activities, occur on different surfaces/structures, and tend to overlap/coincide. We overcome these challenges by extracting information about signal periodicity for similar activities through cepstrum-based features, leveraging hierarchical learning to differentiate activities on different surfaces, and denoting "primary/secondary"activities based on their relative frequency and importance. We evaluate our approach using real-world hand washing data across four different sink structures/locations, and achieve an average F1-score for hand washing activities of 0.95, which represents an 8.8X and 10.2X reduction in error over two different baseline approaches.Copyright © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.
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COVID-19 , Hand Hygiene , Humans , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics/prevention & control , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Managing community-acquired infections remains an ongoing challenge for community nursing teams. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic meant that community nurses had to ensure they were using evidence-based infection prevention and control measures to limit the effects of the pandemic and maintain patient safety. Community environments can be unpredictable, and compared with acute settings nurses will often lack the appropriate resources when visiting patients in their homes or in residential care. This article outlines effective infection prevention and control measures that nurses can implement in the community, such as the appropriate use of personal protective equipment, optimal hand hygiene, safe waste management and adherence to an aseptic technique.
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COVID-19 , Hand Hygiene , Humans , COVID-19/prevention & control , Personal Protective Equipment , Infection Control/methodsABSTRACT
Introduction: Handwashing is the most effective preventive behavior for coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infection. However, research has shown the lower handwashing behaviors among Korean adults. Objectives: This study aims to analyze factors associated with handwashing as a preventive behavior for COVID-19 infection based on the health belief model (HBM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) behavioral theories. Methods: This secondary data analysis utilized the Community Health Survey developed by Disease Control and Prevention Agency conducted in 2020. Sampling method was stratified and targeted 900 people living in the territory of each community public health center. In total, 228,344 cases were used in the analysis. Handwashing behavior, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, subjective norm, and influenza vaccine uptake were used in the analysis. Regression analysis using weighing strategy by stratification and domain analysis was used. Results: Less washing hand was associated with older age (B = 0.01, p < .001), males (B = 0.42, p < .001), not receiving an influenza vaccine (B = 0.09, p < .001), perceived susceptibility (B = 0.12, p < .001), subjective norm (B = 0.05, p < .001), and perceived severity (B = -0.04, p < .001). Conclusion: While perceived susceptibility and social norm had positive association, perceived severity had a negative association with handwashing. Considering the Korean culture, creating a shared norm for frequent handwashing could be beneficial to promote handwashing rather than emphasizing the disease and its consequences.
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Introduction: Healthcare-associated infections have increased during the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic because of inadequate adherence to infection control measures. Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLBSI) are one of the infections with an increased incidence. In this study, CLBSI standardized infection ratio (SIRs) in three periods were compared, and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on CLBSI observed in intensive care units (ICUs) was evaluated. The hand hygiene compliance rates were also examined for the same period.Materials and Methods: The 3-year (2019, 2020, and 2021) SIR, standardized utilization ratio (SUR), and SIR change rates between years in 12 adult ICUs were compared. Calculations were made using the SIR and SUR calculation tool prepared by the General Directorate of Public Health of Turkey. The formula [(SIR/SUR of year Y-SIR/SUR of year X) / SIR/SUR x 100 of year X] was used when calculating the SIR/SUR change rates between periods.Results: In 2019 and 2020, SIR was detected as >1 only in the Burn ICU. Anesthesiology and Reanimation 1 and 2 and Internal Medicine 3 were the ICUs with the highest SIR increase rate in 2020. In 2021, the SIR was <1 in all units. In Anesthesiology and Reanimation 2, Internal Medicine 1 and 3, and Cardiovascular Surgery ICUs, the SUR was >1 in all periods. When the mean SIR values of ICUs between 2019, 2020, and 2021 were compared, the rate was significantly higher in 2020 (p<0.05). A significant increase was found in hand hygiene compliance in 2021 compared with previous years (p<0.05).Conclusion: With the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in CLBSI-SIR was observed in 2020. In 2021, a decrease in CLBSI-SIR and an increase in hand hygiene compliance were achieved by gaining experience in the follow-up and treatment of patients with COVID-19, implementing infection control programs, and conducting on-site training and inspections.