Hand hygiene status among inpatients and their families in infectious diseases departments in Yantai City

Abstract:

ObjectiveTo understand the status of hand hygiene(HH) among patients hospitalized in departments of infectious diseases and their families in Yantai City, and provide reference for HH intervention.MethodsPatients and their families(n=221) in  departments of infectious diseases of secondary and above levels of hospitals as well as infectious diseases hospitals in Yantai in JulyAugust 2015 were selected for questionnaire survey, education and implementation status of HH were investigated; hand bacteriological sampling was performed on some patients and their families (n=62) to investigate effect of handwashing. Results61.99% of patients and their families had received verbal HH education, only 18.55% indicated to have seen health care workers(HCWs) to perform the six step handwashing method; 50.68% of the respondents didn’t understand the six step handwashing method, and 85.52% never performed the six step handwashing, the main reason is that they didn’t know how to perform. 93.21% of patients(n=206) and their families believed that handwashing was important. The cognition of HH opportunities in daily life was relatively higher(61.54%94.51%)，and in hospital environment was relatively lower(36.15%49.23%)，only 36.15% of the families washed hands before left the hospital. Unqualified rate of detection results of sampling of hands of patients with infectious diseases and their families was 83.87%. ConclusionPatients with infectious diseases and their families are deficient in HH knowledge and behavior, medical institutions should carry out systematic and standard HH education to reduce the risk of healthcareassociated infection.