Innovative technologies for hand hygiene monitoring are urgently needed in the fight against COVID-19

Cawthorne, Katie-Rose; Cooke, R.P.D.

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2020.04.005

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The role of proper hand hygiene behaviors for COVID-19 prevention is reflected in a global interest in this issue, and it is indicated as a real-time indicator for transmission-reduction policies and population health literacy [43]. However, it is still indicated that hand hygiene should be monitored [44] and supported [45], while feedback is necessary [46], due to the fact that there are still inadequacies. Taking this into account, the results observed for the studied population of Polish adolescents must be interpreted as very positive, but still not satisfactory.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population-Based Study of the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Hand Hygiene Behaviors—Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

2020

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization and other major authorities recommend frequent hand washing and applying proper hand hygiene procedures as one of the cheapest, easiest, and most important ways to prevent the spread of a virus. For adolescents it is especially important as it should become for them a lifelong habit. The aim of the study was to assess the hand hygiene behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in a national Polish sample of secondary school adolescents and to verify the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on those behaviors. The study was conducted in April 2020 in a national sample of 2323 secondary school students recruited based on secondary school sampling procedure (random quota sampling with quotas for voivodeships). The hand hygiene behaviors that were assessed included: frequency of washing hands, reasons for not washing hands, circumstances of washing hands, and procedure of handwashing. Participants were asked each question twice—for the current period of the COVID-19 pandemic and for the period before the COVID-19 issue. The declared frequency of washing hands during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly higher than before (p < 0.0001), as the majority of respondents declared doing it 6–15 times a day (58.4%) while before the pandemic, it was 3–10 times a day (68.1%). The share of respondents declaring washing their hands always while it would be needed was significantly higher for the period during the COVID-19 pandemic (54.8%) than it was for the period before (35.6%; p < 0.0001), and there was a lower share of respondents declaring various reasons for not washing hands. For the majority of circumstances of washing hands, including those associated with meals, personal hygiene, leaving home, socializing, health, and household chores, the share of respondents declaring always washing their hands was significantly higher for the period during the COVID-19 pandemic than for the period before (p < 0.0001). For the majority of steps of handwashing procedure, the share of respondents declaring including them always was significantly higher for the period during the COVID-19 pandemic than for the period before (p < 0.0001), but a higher share declared not wearing a watch and bracelet (p = 0.0006), and rings (p = 0.0129). It was concluded that during the COVID-19 pandemic all the assessed hand hygiene behaviors of Polish adolescents were improved, compared with those before, but hand hygiene education is still necessary.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population-Based Study of the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Hand Hygiene Behaviors—Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

2020

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“…The connection between poor hand hygiene and infection transmission has been well studied. 1 , 3 Many guidelines and quality improvement initiatives have focused on hand hygiene practices and it has received wide attention with the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, 27 , 28 yet deficiencies continue to be reported across different care settings. The overall adherence rate in this study was lower than the one previously published study in an HHC setting 9 (45.6% vs 59.2%) and notably lower than nurse self-report estimates, 29 but comparable to many observation studies conducted in other health care facilities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation of Hand Hygiene Practices in Home Health Care

McDonald

Brickner

Russell

et al. 2021

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

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Objective To describe nurse hand hygiene practices in the home health care (HHC) setting, nurse adherence to hand hygiene guidelines, and factors associated with hand hygiene opportunities during home care visits. Design Observational study of nurse hand hygiene practices. Setting and Participants: Licensed practical/vocational and registered nurses were observed in the homes of patients being served by a large nonprofit HHC agency. Methods Two researchers observed 400 home care visits conducted by 50 nurses. The World Health Organization's “5 Moments for Hand Hygiene” validated observation tool was used to record opportunities and actual practices of hand hygiene, with 3 additional opportunities specific to the HHC setting. Patient assessment data available in the agency electronic health record and a nurse demographic questionnaire were also collected to describe patients and nurse participants. Results A total of 2014 opportunities were observed. On arrival in the home was the most frequent opportunity (n = 384), the least frequent was after touching a patient's surroundings (n = 43). The average hand hygiene adherence rate was 45.6% after adjusting for clustering at the nurse level. Adherence was highest after contact with body fluid (65.1%) and lowest after touching a patient (29.5%). The number of hand hygiene opportunities was higher when patients being served were at increased risk of an infection-related emergency department visit or hospitalization and when the home environment was observed to be “dirty.” No nurse or patient demographic characteristics were associated with the rate of nurse hand hygiene adherence. Conclusions and Implications Hand hygiene adherence in HHC is suboptimal, with rates mirroring those reported in hospital and outpatient settings. The connection between poor hand hygiene and infection transmission has been well studied, and it has received widespread attention with the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. Agencies can use results found in this study to better inform quality improvement initiatives.

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“…Most studies of COVID-19 have focused on the medical and technical aspects of the subject, such as the causative agent of the disease and its pathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment, along with possible preventive interventions (3,4). These interventions are generally intended for use by urban residents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some at Risk for COVID-19 Are Reluctant to Take Precautions, but Others Are Not: A Case From Rural in Southern Iran

Yazdanpanah

Abadi

Komendantova

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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Little is known about the evaluative and cognitive foundations for adopting preventive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Recognizing the existence of a gap in the knowledge describing the intention and behavior of participating in health measures, this study investigated the drivers that contribute to the intention to take health protective measures among 305 rural youth from the Dashtestan Region, Bushehr Province, and southern Iran, reached through an online survey. Protection motivation theory (PMT) served as the theoretical framework for the study. It was able to forecast variation in intentions and behaviors with accuracies of 39 and 64%, respectively. Furthermore, the variables of response efficiency, perceived severity, and self-efficacy had a positive and significant effect on protective intentions. Additionally, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and intention produced a positive and significant impression on behaviors, with most of the behavioral variance being accounted for by intention, as was hypothesized. In conclusion, it is suggested that health development including training measures that take account of both the concrete issues of health resources and technologies and of more abstract ones, such as mindset readiness, are important for engagement in positive health care behaviors. Accordingly, training-based interventions for rural youth should be contemplated, with the object of changing their intentions.

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Innovative technologies for hand hygiene monitoring are urgently needed in the fight against COVID-19

Cited by 12 publications

References 7 publications

Population-Based Study of the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Hand Hygiene Behaviors—Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

Population-Based Study of the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Hand Hygiene Behaviors—Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

Observation of Hand Hygiene Practices in Home Health Care

Some at Risk for COVID-19 Are Reluctant to Take Precautions, but Others Are Not: A Case From Rural in Southern Iran

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