An Investigation of the General Population’s Self-Reported Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance in a Cross-European Setting

Abstract

Every year, thousands of people from the UK travel to other countries for work and leisure. Europe, and particularly Spain, is one of the most popular travel destinations for people from the UK. However, it is known that travel to other countries can enhance the risk of communicable disease transmission from person to person, especially when a new one emerges. Adequate hand hygiene behaviour and compliance is widely accepted as being a simple, effective method in preventing the spread of communicable diseases that may be contracted during travel abroad. There is a well-established body of work investigating hand hygiene practice and compliance in community settings, but no recent studies have examined the hand hygiene practice and compliance of the general population when travelling abroad or in a cross-European context. The findings of this study indicated that most UK members of the general population when travelling abroad have a good level of understanding of the importance of adequate hand hygiene practice and compliance and its role regarding communicable disease prevention and control. As such, self-reported levels of compliance were high. Similar findings were made for Spanish members of the general population. However, while self-reported perceptions of adequacy of hand hygiene performance were relatively high, particularly among UK respondents, this was not supported by responses specifically focused on hand hygiene behaviour. However, differences in self-reported adequacy regarding the importance of handwashing versus hand drying, the number of steps that should be followed and the length of time that should be spent washing and drying hands were found for each group. This suggests that self-reported compliance may reflect intention to practice hand hygiene rather than true compliance. It also suggests that there are gaps in knowledge regarding the adequate method of hand hygiene among the cohort as a whole, and indeed these differences may account be a factor in for the high transmission rates of communicable disease when travelling abroad.

Antimicrobial Photodynamic Coatings Reduce the Microbial Burden on Environmental Surfaces in Public Transportation—A Field Study in Buses

“…Good hand hygiene is also important in public areas, as it prevents the spread of diseases especially when travelling [ 44 ], studies suggest that 22% to 64% of international travelers become ill during or after travel [ 45 ]. However, the rates of hand washing in the general population is highly varying.…”

Functional dependence of COVID-19 growth rate on lockdown conditions and rate of vaccination

“…In the Berlin context, as in Europe as a whole, hand hygiene problems are generally handled successfully. For example, UK members of the general population have a good level of understanding of the importance of adequate hand hygiene practice and compliance and its role regarding communicable disease prevention and control, according to surveys [13]. More than 90% of UK respondents consider hand hygiene to be important or very important for disease prevention (in comparison, about half as many respondents in the same survey consider vaccination to be important for disease prevention).…”

Antimicrobial Photodynamic Coatings Reduce the Microbial Burden on Environmental Surfaces in Public Transportation - a Field Study in Buses

“…Good hand hygiene is also important in public areas as it prevents the spread of diseases especially when travelling [27], studies suggest that 22% to 64% of international travelers become ill during or after travel [28]. However, the rates of hand washing in general population is highly varying.…”

“…A self-reported survey among the general populating in UK reported that only 61% wash their hands after toilet use [28]. A comparable study investigated the compliance rate of hand washing in Germany and women reported 'almost always' with a compliance of 30.8% (men: 20.3%) in situations like public restroom visits [32], but one should consider the weaknesses of self-reported compliance compared to observational studies [28]. Currently, the situation might have improved due to the COVID pandemic.…”