Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Leicester School of Pharmacy, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, United Kingdom.
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, United Kingdom.
Front Public Health. 2024 Sep 23;12:1427749. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1427749. eCollection 2024.
It is widely acknowledged that good hand hygiene (HH) is an important non-pharmaceutical method for reducing the transmission of infectious diseases. Children are at high risk of infection due to their immature immune systems. Hospital transmitted infections are a cause for concern worldwide, with poor HH suggested to be responsible for up to 20% of cases. Patients, in particular paediatric patients, are often overlooked when it comes to the promotion of hand hygiene compliance (HHC) in hospitals. This report describes the clinical evaluation of the 'Soaper Stars'; a collection of child-friendly HH products with linked educational resource, developed using the COM-B approach to behaviour change, and designed to encourage correct HH in paediatric patients and in schools.
The Soaper Star products were distributed on paediatric wards in five UK hospitals, and the use of the products around mealtimes was evaluated. Workshops teaching the 'why when and how' of handwashing were run in four UK primary schools with pre and post evaluations conducted to establish impact on knowledge. Over 300 children were involved.
The Soaper Stars products stimulated a 38% increase in HHC compared to when only hospital-issued products were available, and verbal feedback from families indicated that having the Soaper Star products encouraged improved HHC by all visitors, not just the patient. Workshops in four schools (283 pupils) showed an increase in knowledge around the transmission of infection and the need for good HH that was sustained for at least 4 weeks.
The results of this study demonstrate that providing children with the age-appropriate knowledge about why HH is necessary, and the child-friendly means to maintain their HH, will lead to greater HHC, not just by individual children, but also their families.
众所周知，良好的手部卫生（HH）是减少传染病传播的重要非药物方法。由于免疫系统不成熟，儿童感染的风险很高。医院传播的感染是全世界关注的问题，据报道，不良的 HH 可能导致多达 20%的感染病例。在医院，患者，特别是儿科患者，在促进手部卫生依从性（HHC）方面往往被忽视。本报告描述了“肥皂星”的临床评估；这是一组儿童友好型 HH 产品，附有相关教育资源，使用 COM-B 行为改变方法开发，旨在鼓励儿科患者和学校正确进行 HH。
肥皂星产品在英国五家医院的儿科病房分发，并评估了在就餐时间使用这些产品的情况。在英国四所小学开展了教授“为什么、何时以及如何洗手”的研讨会，并进行了前后评估，以确定对知识的影响。超过 300 名儿童参与了该研究。
与仅提供医院发放的产品相比，肥皂星产品刺激了 HHC 增加 38%，并且来自家庭的口头反馈表明，拥有肥皂星产品不仅鼓励了患者，也鼓励了所有访客改善 HHC。在四所学校（283 名学生）的研讨会上，关于感染传播和良好 HH 必要性的知识有所增加，这种知识的提高至少持续了 4 周。
这项研究的结果表明，为儿童提供有关 HH 必要性的年龄适当知识，以及保持 HH 的儿童友好方法，将导致更大的 HHC，不仅是个别儿童，还有他们的家人。
