Highlights
- •Influenza season is an independent predictor of increased hand hygiene adherence.
- •This finding suggests a higher awareness of hand hygiene during influenza seasons.
- •Implications for healthcare worker education on hand hygiene should be considered.
Hand hygiene (HH) is the single most important measure in reducing the burden of healthcare-acquired
infections. Based on 12,740 HH opportunities observed during 6 consecutive years at
our tertiary care center, HH adherence among healthcare workers (HCWs) was significantly
better during influenza season compared to non-influenza periods, after controlling
for important covariables (odds ratio = 1.17, 95% confidence interval 1.05-1.30).
This finding suggests that HH awareness is increased during influenza periods, which
could have implications for HCW education.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 18, 2018
Footnotes
Funding/support: No financial support was provided relevant to this article.
Conflicts of interest: All authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
