A Survey of Handwashing Knowledge and Attitudes among the Healthcare Professionals in Lahore, Pakistan

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the knowledge and attitudes towards handwashing of clinical year medical and dental students and health-care professionals (HCPs) working in the departments of medicine, surgery, dentistry, nursing, and physiotherapy in Lahore, Pakistan. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted during May and June 2016. After approval from the institutional review board, a modified form of the World Health Organization (WHO) Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire for Healthcare workers that included 18 items was sent to 400 clinical year students and HCPs from six medical colleges and affiliated hospitals of Lahore. The data obtained was entered and analyzed by using IBM SPSS version 20 (IBM, NY, USA). Chi-square was used as the test of significance. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant for all purposes. RESULTS: The response rate was 79%. Less than half of the respondents (149, 47.9%) were satisfied with their knowledge regarding hand hygiene. Statistically significant associations of various groups of HCPs were observed with their satisfaction regarding knowledge about hand hygiene (p-value = 0.022), their awareness of the proper technique required for handwashing proposed by the WHO (p-value = 0.001), and their awareness about other preventive techniques proposed by the WHO and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (p-value = 0.021). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the clinical year students and HCPs were not satisfied with their knowledge regarding hand hygiene. HCPs working in different departments have varying knowledge and attitudes towards hand hygiene. Females were found to be more satisfied with their handwashing practices. Teaching proper technique of handwashing to medical students and starting refresher courses regarding hand hygiene for HCPs are dire needs. The WHO-recommended guidelines should not only be taught but also implemented in the medical field as poor hand hygiene techniques have led to the spread of many diseases around the globe.