title: Graphical Assessment Technique (GAT) - An Objective, Comprehensive and Comparative Hand Hygiene Quantification Tool.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There has been a profound leap in developing countries in sectors of human development but it falls short of millennium development goals. Diarrhoea, respiratory infections are primary cause of child deaths around the world due to improper hygiene practice. There is lack of systematic objective analysis, follow-up and quantification of hand hygiene guidelines. So, there is an urgent requisite of a tool to assess the same.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To conduct a pilot test for assessing the efficacy of Graphical Assessment Technique (GAT) in objectively evaluating and comparing intervention based hand hygiene among students of National Association of Blind School (NABS) and a government school.
  
  
  METHODS
  GAT was used to assess the baseline and post-intervention improvement of 80 students considered for the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0 and was subjected to quantitative analysis and parametric tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Non-significant difference (p≥0.05) was found at baseline and immediate post-intervention on percentage mean scores of blind school students and government school student, while government school children also showed non-significant difference at one week. Significant difference (p≤0.05) was found at baseline, post-intervention one week and post-intervention one month for blind school children along with baseline and post-intervention mean percentage scores for government school children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The primary agenda behind the study was to test a tool which can objectively evaluate, quantify and compare the follow-up of hand hygiene guidelines and aid in better hand hygiene promotion.
authors.affiliation: Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Jishnu Krishna
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Basavaraj
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Patthi
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singla
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Ritu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Venisha
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pandita
authors.affiliation: Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Ravneet
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malhi
authors.affiliation: Tutor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, D.J. College of Dental Sciences and Research , Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Vaibhav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vashishtha
keywords: Guidelines; Hand disinfection; India; Public health; Students