Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study

Early childhood is a formative period during which healthy habits are developed, including proper hand hygiene practices. The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effectiveness of a 4-week series of educational sessions that consider the cognitive developmental stage of children...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping, Cheung, Janet Pui Lee
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7579510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33020447
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197264
_version_ 1783598607079833600
author Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping
Cheung, Janet Pui Lee
author_facet Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping
Cheung, Janet Pui Lee
author_sort Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping
collection PubMed
description Early childhood is a formative period during which healthy habits are developed, including proper hand hygiene practices. The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effectiveness of a 4-week series of educational sessions that consider the cognitive developmental stage of children on increasing their knowledge and promoting hand hygiene practices. The intervention group (n = 33) observed the hand hygiene program, whereas another group served as the waitlist control (n = 20). Creative activities were planned for the illustration of hand hygiene concepts in terms of “right moments”, “right steps”, and “right duration”. Hand sanitizer coverage was evaluated using a hand scanner. After the intervention, the experimental group had higher knowledge level toward hand hygiene than the control group (p < 0.001). Significant improvements in hand hygiene performance at the left palm and dorsum (p < 0.05), right palm (p < 0.05), and overall hand coverage (p < 0.05) were observed in the experimental group. The study demonstrated that the knowledge and proper hand hygiene (HH) practice of children can be positively influenced by the use of an age-appropriate education program. The results of this study have implications for school health educators and parents for promoting HH practices among children at home and at the school level.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7579510
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75795102020-10-29 Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping Cheung, Janet Pui Lee Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Early childhood is a formative period during which healthy habits are developed, including proper hand hygiene practices. The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effectiveness of a 4-week series of educational sessions that consider the cognitive developmental stage of children on increasing their knowledge and promoting hand hygiene practices. The intervention group (n = 33) observed the hand hygiene program, whereas another group served as the waitlist control (n = 20). Creative activities were planned for the illustration of hand hygiene concepts in terms of “right moments”, “right steps”, and “right duration”. Hand sanitizer coverage was evaluated using a hand scanner. After the intervention, the experimental group had higher knowledge level toward hand hygiene than the control group (p < 0.001). Significant improvements in hand hygiene performance at the left palm and dorsum (p < 0.05), right palm (p < 0.05), and overall hand coverage (p < 0.05) were observed in the experimental group. The study demonstrated that the knowledge and proper hand hygiene (HH) practice of children can be positively influenced by the use of an age-appropriate education program. The results of this study have implications for school health educators and parents for promoting HH practices among children at home and at the school level. MDPI 2020-10-04 2020-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7579510/ /pubmed/33020447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197264 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping
Cheung, Janet Pui Lee
Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study
title Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study
title_full Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study
title_fullStr Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study
title_short Effectiveness of “Hand Hygiene Fun Month” for Kindergarten Children: A Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study
title_sort effectiveness of “hand hygiene fun month” for kindergarten children: a pilot quasi-experimental study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7579510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33020447
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197264
work_keys_str_mv AT suenlornakwaiping effectivenessofhandhygienefunmonthforkindergartenchildrenapilotquasiexperimentalstudy
AT cheungjanetpuilee effectivenessofhandhygienefunmonthforkindergartenchildrenapilotquasiexperimentalstudy