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An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Background: The ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic has resulted in significant levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly among the elderly and immuno-suppressed groups. Although adequate hand hygiene (HH) behaviour and compliance is widely accepted as being the most...

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Autores principales: Lawson, Aaron, Cameron, Robert, Vaganay-Miller, Marie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8296206/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34204779
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126385
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author Lawson, Aaron
Cameron, Robert
Vaganay-Miller, Marie
author_facet Lawson, Aaron
Cameron, Robert
Vaganay-Miller, Marie
author_sort Lawson, Aaron
collection PubMed
description Background: The ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic has resulted in significant levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly among the elderly and immuno-suppressed groups. Although adequate hand hygiene (HH) behaviour and compliance is widely accepted as being the most effective self-protective measure in preventing the spread of diseases like COVID-19, previous research suggests that normal hand hygiene compliance is poor, but generally improves during a disease pandemic. This research aimed to evaluate the hand hygiene behaviour and compliance of the general public in the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland (NI). Methods: This cross-sectional study involved the use of infrared-imaging cameras to observe the hand hygiene behaviour and compliance of the general public when using one set of male and female public restrooms. Results: The findings of this study indicated that the level of hand hygiene compliance of the general public was poor in the initial weeks, with 82.93% overall not washing their hands adequately. Conclusions: Inadequate HH behaviour and compliance may have added significantly to the rapid rate of spread of COVID-19 in the initial weeks of the pandemic in NI. Current public health campaigns do not appear, based on this study, to have the desired impact and may need to be reviewed or re-enforced in order to achieve the levels of hand hygiene compliance required to slow the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in the future.
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spelling pubmed-82962062021-07-23 An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Lawson, Aaron Cameron, Robert Vaganay-Miller, Marie Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: The ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic has resulted in significant levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly among the elderly and immuno-suppressed groups. Although adequate hand hygiene (HH) behaviour and compliance is widely accepted as being the most effective self-protective measure in preventing the spread of diseases like COVID-19, previous research suggests that normal hand hygiene compliance is poor, but generally improves during a disease pandemic. This research aimed to evaluate the hand hygiene behaviour and compliance of the general public in the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland (NI). Methods: This cross-sectional study involved the use of infrared-imaging cameras to observe the hand hygiene behaviour and compliance of the general public when using one set of male and female public restrooms. Results: The findings of this study indicated that the level of hand hygiene compliance of the general public was poor in the initial weeks, with 82.93% overall not washing their hands adequately. Conclusions: Inadequate HH behaviour and compliance may have added significantly to the rapid rate of spread of COVID-19 in the initial weeks of the pandemic in NI. Current public health campaigns do not appear, based on this study, to have the desired impact and may need to be reviewed or re-enforced in order to achieve the levels of hand hygiene compliance required to slow the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in the future. MDPI 2021-06-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8296206/ /pubmed/34204779 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126385 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lawson, Aaron
Cameron, Robert
Vaganay-Miller, Marie
An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
title An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
title_full An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
title_fullStr An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
title_short An Evaluation of the Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance of the General Public When Using Public Restrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) during the Initial Weeks of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
title_sort evaluation of the hand hygiene behaviour and compliance of the general public when using public restrooms in northern ireland (ni) during the initial weeks of the novel coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8296206/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34204779
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126385
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