title: Evaluation of the short-term and long-term effect of a short series of hand hygiene campaigns on improving adherence in a tertiary care hospital in India.
abstract: Hand hygiene compliance at our institution was monitored by direct observation before and after a series of 2 hand hygiene awareness campaigns across an18-month time period to analyze the effect of these campaigns. A total of 5,059 opportunities for hand hygiene were observed. Compliance increased from 28.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18.7%-43.2%) to 42.5% (95% CI, 30.7%-54.8%) after the 2 campaigns (P < .0001) but dropped to 36.4% (95% CI, 30.5%-44.5%) after 2 years (P < .001). Three of the 8 intensive care units that showed a significant increase after the campaigns did not maintain the increased compliance at 2 years' follow-up. We conclude that educational programs should be repeatedly conducted to maintain high adherence to hand hygiene standards in health care settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. Electronic address: manisha.biswal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Manisha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biswal
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Surria
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajpoot
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Administration, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Navneet
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dhaliwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Suma B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Appananavar
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Neelam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Taneja
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Administration, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Anil Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000592:standards*; D006235:Hand Disinfection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D063373:Hand Hygiene / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards; D063128:Tertiary Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Hand hygiene compliance; India; Training