title: Self-reported hand washing behaviors and foodborne illness: a propensity score matching approach.
abstract: Hand washing is a simple and effective but easily overlooked way to reduce cross-contamination and the transmission of foodborne pathogens. In this study, we used the propensity score matching methodology to account for potential selection bias to explore our hypothesis that always washing hands before food preparation tasks is associated with a reduction in the probability of reported foodborne illness. Propensity score matching can simulate random assignment to a condition so that pretreatment observable differences between a treatment group and a control group are homogenous on all the covariates except the treatment variable. Using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2010 Food Safety Survey, we estimated the effect of self-reported hand washing behavior on the probability of self-reported foodborne illness. Our results indicate that reported washing of hands with soap always before food preparation leads to a reduction in the probability of reported foodborne illness.
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, Maryland 20857, USA. mir.ali@samhsa.hhs.gov.
authors.forename: Mir M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verrill
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Yuanting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006235:Hand Disinfection; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057216:Propensity Score; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012915:Soaps
chemical_list: D012915:Soaps