Effectiveness of hand hygiene education among a random sample of women from the community

OBJECTIVE The effectiveness of hand hygiene education was investigated by studying the hand hygiene awareness and bacterial hand contamination among a random sample of 170 women in the community. METHODS Questionnaire was used to assess the hand hygiene awareness score, followed by swabbing of the dominant hand. Bacterial identification was done by conventional biochemical tests. RESULTS Better hand hygiene awareness score was significantly associated with age, scarce bacterial growth and absence of potential pathogen (p < 0.05). Out of the 170 hand samples, bacterial growth was noted in 155 (91.2%), which included 91 (53.5%) heavy growth, 53 (31.2%) moderate growth and 11 (6.47%) scanty growth. The presence of enteric bacteria was associated with long nails (49.4% vs 29.2%; p = 0.007; OR = 2.3; 95% CI: 1.25-4.44) while finger rings were associated with higher bacterial load (p = 0.003). Coliforms was significantly higher among women who had a lower hand hygiene awareness score, washed their hands at lower frequency (59.0% vs 32.8%; p = 0.003; OR = 2.9; 95% CI: 1.41-6.13) and used common soap as compared to antiseptic soaps (69.7% vs 30.3%, p = 0.000; OR = 4.11; 95% CI: 1.67-10.12). CONCLUSIONS Level of hand hygiene awareness among the participants was satisfactory but not the compliance of hand washing practice, especially among the elders.