Effect of Hand Hygiene Intervention in Community Kindergartens: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Shiyang Wu, Richard Szewei Wang, Yu-Ni Huang, Thomas T. H. Wan, Tao-Hsin Tung and Bing-Long Wang ()
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Shiyang Wu: Department of Public Health, Macau University of Science Technology, Macau 999078, China
Richard Szewei Wang: Affiliation Program of Data Analytics and Business Computing, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, NY 10012, USA
Yu-Ni Huang: College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan
Thomas T. H. Wan: School of Global Health Management and Informatics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Tao-Hsin Tung: Evidence-Based Medicine Center, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Taizhou 317000, China
Bing-Long Wang: School of Health Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-11

Abstract: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of hand hygiene interventions on the overall hand hygiene (HH) status of teaching instruction of hand hygiene in kindergartens, given the vulnerability of kindergarten children and their high risk due to infectious diseases and the current COVID-19 epidemic. We investigated the HH status of teachers from two kindergartens in the same community. The participants were recruited from 28 classes in both kindergartens. After completing the baseline survey, the intervention program consisted of three components: lectures on infectious diseases, lectures on HH, and seven-step hand washing techniques conducted in two kindergartens. The intervention program effectively increased teachers’ perceived disease susceptibility ( p < 0.05), reduced the total bacterial colonization of children’s hands ( p < 0.001), and improved the HH environment ( p < 0.01). We recommend that health authorities or kindergartens adopt this HH intervention program to effectively improve the HH status in kindergartens and allow for preventive responses to the COVID-19 epidemic or other emerging infectious diseases.

Keywords: hand hygiene; kindergarten; intervention effect; infectious disease control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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