title: Impact of health campaign on hand hygiene with alcohol-based hand rubs in a non-clinical setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hand hygiene has been acknowledged as the single most important measure to prevent nosocomial infections. Likewise, for non-clinical settings, hand hygiene is recognized as a key element to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, nevertheless poor compliance has been documented. The feasibility of hand hygiene interventions in open-community settings with adults is mostly unclear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the acceptability and feasibility of a health campaign to promote hand hygiene with alcohol-based hand disinfectants at workplaces in a non-clinical setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The surveys were conducted as part of a prospective, controlled intervention study with volunteers from the administration of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, the municipality of Greifswald and the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Participants in the intervention group were provided with alcohol-based hand disinfection; the control group was unchanged. Eleven volunteers filled out an initial survey at the beginning of the intervention regarding demographic and health-related questions as well as questions about the type of work, and a survey after completion of the intervention to evaluate the study's impact on the participants' attitudes toward hand hygiene. Participants in the experimental group filled out a monthly questionnaire regarding their compliance with hand hygiene measures, feasibility of hand disinfection and possible side-effects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 850 employees asked to participate, 134 were included in the study, and surveys from 129 participants (intervention: 64 vs control: 65) were accepted for analysis. Overall, datasets of 1230 person-months (79.46% of total possible follow-up surveys) were collected. Return rate and compliance remained high during the study period. Hand disinfection did not lead to skin problems in the majority of person-months. After the intervention, a majority of participants would favour a further use of hand disinfectants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Campaigns that enforce the use of alcohol-based hand disinfectants can have a sustainable effect on the compliance with hand hygiene measures in non-clinical settings. Campaigns have been shown to be feasible and effective in the prevention of transmissible diseases, therefore employers should consider whether hand hygiene campaigns to introduce waterless hand rubs could be included in companies' health programmes.
authors: Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital of Greifswald, Germany. nhuebner@uni-greifswald.de
authors: N-O
authors: NO
authors: Hübner
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Hübner
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Kramer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000438:Alcohols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D063373:Hand Hygiene / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000438:Alcohols; D004202:Disinfectants