Methods All 86 acute public Health Services in Victoria were funded to participate and submit three hand hygiene compliance audits per year. Education, resources and auditor training was provided. Healthcare worker hand hygiene compliance was assessed by direct observation using a tool based on the WHO 5 Moments. In 2009 an organisational hand hygiene compliance benchmark was included in the He...

1 Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India, 2 School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 3Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom, 4Ghana Health Service/University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana, 5 School of Public Health, Makerere University...

1 School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 2 Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom, 3 Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India, 4 Ghana Health Service/School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, 5 School of Public Health, Makerere Univers...

BACKGROUND Hand hygiene is an important and basic practice that should be used by all healthcare staff to protect both themselves and their patients against infection. Unfortunately hand hygiene compliance remains poor. OBJECTIVE To show an improvement in hand hygiene compliance using a multifaceted approach. METHODS This was a quasiexperimental pre-post intervention study design with a num...

Homeschooled students provide a naturalistic comparison group for later/flexible school start times. This study compared sleep patterns and sleep hygiene for homeschooled students and public/private school students (grades 6-12). Public/private school students (n = 245) and homeschooled students (n = 162) completed a survey about sleep patterns and sleep hygiene. Significant school group differ...

BACKGROUND The current prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) is a major public health concern. Patient contact in the operating theatre (OT) can contribute to HCAI via microbial contamination. The application of hand hygiene is effective in reducing infection rates. Limited data are available on adherence to hand-hygiene guidelines by OT staff. METHODS Covert direct observati...

BACKGROUND Illness-related absences have been shown to lead to negative educational and economic outcomes. Both hand washing and hand sanitizer interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing illness-related absences. However, while the importance of hand hygiene in schools is clear, the role of instruction in use is less obvious. The purpose of this study was to compare absenteeism r...

Methods Between 2006 and 2010, universal active surveillance (on admission and discharge), isolation/cohorting, data feedback loops and standardised hand hygiene (HH) audits were rolled out in a stepwise fashion across NUH. A comprehensive hand hygiene programme was institutionalised. MRSA acquisition was defined as having a positive exit swab yet negative entry and no known previous MRSA. Ward...