Hand Washing Compliance and COVID-19: A Non-Participatory Observational Study among Hospital Visitors
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Abstract
Background
Hand washing remains a key measure for intercepting the dispatch of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, hand washing must be perpetuated properly using soap and water for at least 20 seconds. In response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, various hospitals have imposed mandatory hand washing to everyone prior entering the facilities, and when leaving. This study aimed to assess the hand washing compliance among visitors of a university referral hospital.
Methods
A non-participatory observational study was conducted in the main entrance of the hospital from April 27 to May 3, 2020, to measure hand washing compliance of its visitors. The quality of hand washing was assessed via direct observation for compliance with the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) core steps. Data were collected using Open Data Kit (ODK) mobile application.
Results
A total of 1,282 hospital visitors were observed, of which 874(68.2%) were males. Full hand washing compliances were observed among 0.9% (95% CI: 0.4–1.4) of the visitors. Withal, there was no difference in the compliances between genders (0.9% vs 0.7%, P = 0.745).
Conclusion
Despite the fact that proper hand washing with soap and water is proven to be one of the effective ways in preventing the spread of COVID-19, a significant number of hospital visitors did not practice standard hand washing procedures. Improvements in this measure are urgently needed in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.02.20120022: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IACUC: Ethical approval and considerations: The study was approved by ethical review committee of Madda Walabu University Goba Referal Hospital Research and Technology Transfer Office and permission was sought from Goba Referral Hospital medical director office (Ref.no 01/2/12594). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Operational Definition: Statistical Analysis: All observed data were collected using ODK and were exported to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 software program for analysis. Statistical …SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.02.20120022: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IACUC: Ethical approval and considerations: The study was approved by ethical review committee of Madda Walabu University Goba Referal Hospital Research and Technology Transfer Office and permission was sought from Goba Referral Hospital medical director office (Ref.no 01/2/12594). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Operational Definition: Statistical Analysis: All observed data were collected using ODK and were exported to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 software program for analysis. Statistical Package for the Social Sciencessuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:There are few limitations in our study. First, we did not use the electronic hand washing observation system which offers a greater advantage over human observations. Second, despite our assumption, the presence of the data collectors may have influenced the hospital visitors’ hand washing activities, and it is likely to have a ‘Hawthorne effect’. Third, selectivity may be possible as the data collectors do not collect data from all people entering and leaving the health facility.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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