Hand hygiene practices in Caribbean and Latin American countries: An integrative review

Abstract

Aim and objective:To explore what is known about knowledge, attitudes and beliefs that influence hand hygiene practices in in low-and middle-income Caribbean and Latin American countries.Background: With the emergence of infectious diseases such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, handwashing is key to preventing communicable diseases as they disproportionately affect populations in low-income countries. While hand hygiene is known to be the single most effective method for avoiding the transmission of infection, little is known about the beliefs and practices of individuals in these regions. Methods: Following PRISMA 2020 Checklist, an integrative review of studies published from 2008-2020 was conducted (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses). Whittemore and Knafl's method was used to review the literature. Six databases were searched, and the Johns Hopkins Evidence Based Rating Scale was used for study appraisal. Results: The review yielded 18 studies conducted across Latin America. Poor handwashing practices are influenced by various factors including inadequate education and training, cultural beliefs, lack of resources and substandard government regulations. Communicable diseases and other diarrheal illnesses were highly prevalent, especially after a major disease outbreak. Conclusion: Future post-disaster campaigns aimed at improving hand hygiene and handwashing practices should focus on beliefs and attitudes to affect behaviour change since there was a higher disease susceptibility during those times. Barriers to proper hand hygiene include false attitudes such as, washing hands only after touching bodily fluids/patient contact or not washing hands at all after open defecation.

The effect of timers and precommitments on handwashing: a randomised controlled trial in a kitchen laboratory

“…There is substantial literature on interventions to improve hand hygiene in Lower Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and in hospitals, but neither of these areas are very relevant to food handlers. Barriers and facilitators to hand hygiene in LMICs are very culturally specific, for example inadequate education and training, cultural beliefs, lack of resources and substandard government regulations (Delva et al, 2022); and in hospitals infrastructural deficits (Ataiyero et al, 2019) and overcrowding and lack of alcohol-based handrub (Loftus et al, 2019). In hospitals, there are increasing efforts to supplement or replace the use of soap and water with alcoholbased hand rub, as per the WHO multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy (Lotfinejad et al, 2021).…”

Comportamiento de la población chilena en las buenas prácticas de higiene

“…Los hogares de los países en desarrollo son los principales contribuyentes a las ETAs; dentro de los factores predisponentes se encuentra la contaminación cruzada (ocurre cuando un alimento crudo entra en contacto con un alimento preparado), la falta de concientización sobre la inocuidad de los alimentos, la higiene personal y la inadecuada manipulación [10][11][12][13] . Algunos estudios han mostrado que existe un bajo nivel de percepción de riesgo asociado a prácticas de higiene de los consumidores y que se ven influenciados por la edad, género, estado civil, entre otros.…”