Highlights
- •As in clinical and community settings, hand hygiene is likely effective at reducing infectious diseases in the workplace.
- •Providing more opportunities for hand hygiene is effective at improving hand hygiene and reducing the incidence of infectious diseases.
- •Hand-hygiene programs may improve employee morale and attitude toward their workplace.
Background
Extensive data suggests that hand hygiene is a critical intervention for reducing
infectious disease transmission in the clinical setting. However, it is unclear whether
hand hygiene is effective at cutting down on infectious illnesses in non-clinical
workplaces. The aim of this review is to assess the current literature concerning
the effects of hand-washing interventions on infectious disease prevention among employees
in nonclinical, office-based workplaces.
Methods
In compiling this review, PubMed, Scopus, and Business Source Premier were examined
for studies published from 1960 through 2016.
Results
Eleven studies (eight experimental, two observational, one a simulation) were identified
as eligible for inclusion. Hand-hygiene interventions at various levels of rigor were
shown to reduce self-reported illness symptoms.
Conclusions
Hand hygiene is thought to be more effective against gastrointestinal illness than
it is against respiratory illness, but no clear consensus has been reached on this
point. Minimal hand-hygiene interventions seem to be effective at reducing the incidence
of employee illness. Along with reducing infections among employees, hand-hygiene
programs in the workplace may provide additional benefits to employers by reducing
the number of employee health insurance claims and improving employee morale. Future
research should use objective measures of hand hygiene and illness, and explore economic
impacts on employers more fully.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 28, 2017
Footnotes
No organization sponsored the research.
Conflicts of Interest: P.N.Z. and A.E.A. have received funding from GOJO Industries Inc. (Akron, OH) for a related project. GOJO Industries Inc. did not provide funding for this systematic review and was not involved in the conception, selection, review, or analysis of this project.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
