Improving children's and their visitors' hand hygiene compliance

Dina Lary; Aaron Calvert; Brigitte Nerlich; Joel Segal; Natalie Vaughan; Jacqueline Randle; Kim R Hardie

doi:10.1177/1757177419892065

Improving children's and their visitors' hand hygiene compliance

J Infect Prev. 2020 Mar;21(2):60-67. doi: 10.1177/1757177419892065. Epub 2019 Dec 16.

Authors

Dina Lary¹, Aaron Calvert¹, Brigitte Nerlich², Joel Segal³, Natalie Vaughan⁴, Jacqueline Randle^{5

6}, Kim R Hardie¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK.
² School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK.
³ Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK.
⁴ Department of Infection Prevention and Control, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Queen's Medical Centre, UK.
⁵ School of Nursing, Physiotherapy, and Midwifery, University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical Centre, UK.
⁶ Endoscopy Unit, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Plymouth, Devon, UK.

Abstract

Background: Numerous interventions have tried to improve healthcare workers' hand hygiene compliance. However, little attention has been paid to children's and their visitors' compliance.

Aim: To test whether interactive educational interventions increase children's and visitors' compliance with hand hygiene.

Methods: This was a cluster randomised study of hand hygiene compliance before and after the introduction of educational interventions. Observations were compared for different moments of hygiene and times of the day. Qualitative data in the form of questionnaire-based structured interviews were obtained.

Findings: Hand hygiene compliance increased by 24.4% (P < 0.001) following the educational interventions, with children's compliance reaching 40.8% and visitors' being 50.8%. Compliance varied depending on which of the five moments of hygiene was observed (P < 0.001), with the highest compliance being 'after body fluid exposure' (72.7%). Responses from questionnaires showed educational interventions raised awareness of the importance of hand hygiene (69%, 57%) compared to those who had not experienced the educational intervention (50%).

Conclusion: Educational interventions may result in a significant increase in children's and visitors' hand hygiene (P < 0.001).

Keywords: Hand hygiene compliance; behavioural change; children; educational intervention; infection prevention; visitors.