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Glowing gel helped children see germs, improved hand hygiene
Fishbein AB. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2011;32:661-666.
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Glowing hand gel may be an effective method to improve children’s hand washing habits, according to new study findings.
Researchers recruited children and their parents while in an ED waiting room in Chicago. Half of the group was randomly assigned to simply use a glowing gel hand wash and the other half used the glowing hand gel and was also given lessons on proper hand hygiene.
“We found that using the gel alone to illustrate the areas of hands that may not be getting clean, even without verbal education, improves children’s hand hygiene,” Mary E. Groll, MD, of Northwestern University Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said in a news release.
For the study, researchers asked 60 children and 57 parents waiting in an ED to apply Glo Germ Gel to their hands. The kids then placed their hands under a black light, which highlighted any dirt or bacteria with a yellow glow. The children were then asked to wash their hands with soap and water before placing them back under the black light. The researchers scored on a four-point cleanliness scale based on the before and after results.
“Waiting for the doctor is usually a tiresome and unproductive experience, but we were able to turn the waiting room into an interactive education center to help kids improve their hand hygiene,” Anna Fishbein, MD, a physician and researcher at Children’s Memorial Hospital, said in the release.
Fifty percent of patients were male; 58% Latino; 28% black; and 8% white. During the initial visit, 91% of children reported washing their hands after using the bathroom and 78% reported hand washing before dinner.
After the test, about half of the children received a brief lesson in proper hand washing techniques. The other children received no additional education. Two to 4 weeks later, 77% of the original participants returned to have their hand washing re-evaluated. All children improved their hand washing ability when compared with the initial visit (P=.02) and were more likely to use warm water at follow-up (P=.01). The children’s score improved regardless of whether they received extra instruction on how to wash their hands.
Parents did not significantly improve in hand washing ability, according to the study results.
“Considering the importance of hand hygiene in disease prevention, the implications of this study will have lasting impact in this community’s effort to decrease the spread of illness,” Groll said.
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