Department of Health and Physical Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Am J Infect Control. 2020 May;48(5):485-489. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2019.12.021. Epub 2020 Feb 7.
Proper hand hygiene helps prevent infectious diseases, while health literacy plays a critical role in preventive health behaviors. It remains unclear as to why proper hand hygiene practices cannot be sustained and what role health literacy plays in older adults fight against infectious diseases.
A convenience sample of 433 old adults aged 65 and above was recruited. Their hygiene practices and health literacy were evaluated using a structured questionnaire adopted from the Centre for Health Protection and the Chinese version of the HLS-Asia-Q questionnaire.
The percentage distribution of the hand hygiene performance, from always to never, was 18%-10%. A majority 63.28% (274) of them were classified as having inadequate health literacy (0-25), while a meager 1.62% (7) of them as having excellent health literacy (42.01-50). The Spearman correlation showed a significant positive relationship (P < 0.05) between the participants' health literacy and their hand hygiene practices.
Health literacy and hand hygiene are positively related in helping the older adults fight against infectious diseases. To sustain proper hand hygiene practices is to provide frequent hand hygiene training to the older adults.
正确的手部卫生有助于预防传染病，而健康素养在预防保健行为中起着至关重要的作用。目前尚不清楚为什么无法坚持正确的手部卫生习惯，以及健康素养在老年人对抗传染病方面扮演着什么样的角色。
采用便利抽样法，招募了 433 名年龄在 65 岁及以上的老年人。他们的卫生习惯和健康素养使用从卫生防护中心和 HLS-Asia-Q 问卷的中文版本改编的结构化问卷进行评估。
手部卫生行为表现（从不至总是）的百分比分布为 18%-10%。其中，大多数老年人（63.28%，274 人）的健康素养被归类为不足（0-25），而只有极少数老年人（1.62%，7 人）的健康素养为优秀（42.01-50）。Spearman 相关分析显示，参与者的健康素养与他们的手部卫生行为之间存在显著的正相关关系（P < 0.05）。
健康素养和手部卫生之间存在正相关关系，有助于老年人对抗传染病。为了维持正确的手部卫生习惯，需要向老年人提供频繁的手部卫生培训。
