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Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools

BACKGROUND: Interventions to increase hand washing in schools have been advocated as a means to reduce the transmission of pandemic influenza and other infections. However, the feasibility and acceptability of effective school-based hygiene interventions is not clear. METHODS: A pilot study in four...

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Autores principales: Schmidt, Wolf-Peter, Wloch, Catherine, Biran, Adam, Curtis, Val, Mangtani, Punam
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2770489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19832971
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-390
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author Schmidt, Wolf-Peter
Wloch, Catherine
Biran, Adam
Curtis, Val
Mangtani, Punam
author_facet Schmidt, Wolf-Peter
Wloch, Catherine
Biran, Adam
Curtis, Val
Mangtani, Punam
author_sort Schmidt, Wolf-Peter
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Interventions to increase hand washing in schools have been advocated as a means to reduce the transmission of pandemic influenza and other infections. However, the feasibility and acceptability of effective school-based hygiene interventions is not clear. METHODS: A pilot study in four primary schools in East London was conducted to establish the current need for enhanced hand hygiene interventions, identify barriers to their implementation and to test their acceptability and feasibility. The pilot study included key informant interviews with teachers and school nurses, interviews, group discussions and essay questions with the children, and testing of organised classroom hand hygiene activities. RESULTS: In all schools, basic issues of personal hygiene were taught especially in the younger age groups. However, we identified many barriers to implementing intensive hygiene interventions, in particular time constraints and competing health issues. Teachers' motivation to teach hygiene and enforce hygienic behaviour was primarily educational rather than immediate infection control. Children of all age groups had good knowledge of hygiene practices and germ transmission. CONCLUSION: The pilot study showed that intensive hand hygiene interventions are feasible and acceptable but only temporarily during a period of a particular health threat such as an influenza pandemic, and only if rinse-free hand sanitisers are used. However, in many settings there may be logistical issues in providing all schools with an adequate supply. In the absence of evidence on effectiveness, the scope for enhanced hygiene interventions in schools in high income countries aiming at infection control appears to be limited in the absence of a severe public health threat.
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spelling pubmed-27704892009-10-30 Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools Schmidt, Wolf-Peter Wloch, Catherine Biran, Adam Curtis, Val Mangtani, Punam BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Interventions to increase hand washing in schools have been advocated as a means to reduce the transmission of pandemic influenza and other infections. However, the feasibility and acceptability of effective school-based hygiene interventions is not clear. METHODS: A pilot study in four primary schools in East London was conducted to establish the current need for enhanced hand hygiene interventions, identify barriers to their implementation and to test their acceptability and feasibility. The pilot study included key informant interviews with teachers and school nurses, interviews, group discussions and essay questions with the children, and testing of organised classroom hand hygiene activities. RESULTS: In all schools, basic issues of personal hygiene were taught especially in the younger age groups. However, we identified many barriers to implementing intensive hygiene interventions, in particular time constraints and competing health issues. Teachers' motivation to teach hygiene and enforce hygienic behaviour was primarily educational rather than immediate infection control. Children of all age groups had good knowledge of hygiene practices and germ transmission. CONCLUSION: The pilot study showed that intensive hand hygiene interventions are feasible and acceptable but only temporarily during a period of a particular health threat such as an influenza pandemic, and only if rinse-free hand sanitisers are used. However, in many settings there may be logistical issues in providing all schools with an adequate supply. In the absence of evidence on effectiveness, the scope for enhanced hygiene interventions in schools in high income countries aiming at infection control appears to be limited in the absence of a severe public health threat. BioMed Central 2009-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC2770489/ /pubmed/19832971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-390 Text en Copyright © 2009 Schmidt et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schmidt, Wolf-Peter
Wloch, Catherine
Biran, Adam
Curtis, Val
Mangtani, Punam
Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools
title Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools
title_full Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools
title_fullStr Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools
title_full_unstemmed Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools
title_short Formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in UK primary schools
title_sort formative research on the feasibility of hygiene interventions for influenza control in uk primary schools
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2770489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19832971
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-390
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