Dirty hands have been proven to be a leading cause of disease and death. And the simple process of washing the hands with soap after using the washroom and before handling food is a potential life-saver.
But though most of us know this, many of us are still neglecting our hand hygiene. Numerous studies have been carried out regarding hand hygiene compliance among the public and in specific industries, and the results make depressing reading according to speakers at a recent hand hygiene conference.
Delegates at the London event, hosted by the Royal Society for Public Health, learned that in one observational study at a UK motorway services station only 32 per cent of men and 64 per cent of women were seen to wash their hands with soap after using the washroom.
A second survey carried out by the Food Standards Agency in 2002 revealed that 39 per cent of UK caterers would not routinely wash their hands after using the toilet, and only 48 per cent would wash their hands after handling raw meat.
And poor hand hygiene in healthcare institutions was claimed to be costing the UK’s National Health Service up to 1.2 billion euros a year, with 50 per cent of hospital-acquired infections considered to be preventable with the aid of an effective hand hygiene regime.
On a global level, the statistics were even more grave. Dr Valerie Curtis, a reader in hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, cited poor hand hygiene as a major factor in the 0.85 million deaths caused by diarrhoea worldwide every year.
Why so many of us are neglecting our hand hygiene is difficult to fathom. But experts at the conference - which took the theme: ‘The science and behaviour behind hand washing at home, work and on the move’ - attempted to solve it. Several of the speakers examined the motives behind poor hand hygiene compliance and considered ways of persuading people to change their hygiene behaviour.
