This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Hand hygiene practices largely ignored during pandemic
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ATLANTA — Health announcements that urged the public to cover their noses or mouths with tissues, handkerchiefs or elbows when sneezing or coughing during the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic may have missed their mark, according to data presented here at the 2010 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
After public health officials established guidelines for respiratory hygiene practices during the pandemic, researchers from the University of Otago in Wellington, New Zealand, said they became curious about the number of people following the recommended behaviors.
In August 2009, the researchers tracked respiratory behaviors in three public settings — a train station, a hospital and a shopping mall — in Wellington City to determine how often people adhered to the recommended hygiene practices while sneezing or coughing. Thirteen medical students acted as observers and recorded data on sneezing or coughing, they said.
Three hundred eighty-four events were recorded by the observers, according to the researchers, with an incidence rate of 5.5 coughs/sneezes per hour of observation time.
Results indicated that 64.4% of people covered their noses or mouths with their hands when sneezing or coughing, whereas only 3.4% used tissues or handkerchiefs and 1.3% used elbows or arms. Data showed that these recommended practices were even less common in certain settings, such as railway carriages.
The researchers said, however, that a greater number of people, 26.7%, did not bother to cover their noses or mouths at all during respiratory events. Uncovered events appeared more common when people were located within 1 m of others.
“This study showed a low prevalence of recommended respiratory hygiene behaviors, suggesting that hygiene messages promoted in mass media campaigns have not been seen and/or have not been readily adopted by the public in this city,” study researcher Nick Wilson, MPH, said.
Subsequent studies in which the researchers monitored public use of a hand sanitizer station at a hospital entrance where they work indicated that some hygiene behaviors had begun to decline during the winter of 2009 in New Zealand. – by Melissa Foster