Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Hand Hygiene Among Hospitalized Patients
Keywords:
Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Hand Hygiene, Hospitalized PatientsAbstract
Hospital-associated infections can be caused by the spread of contamination on the hands of the patients. Hand hygiene to eliminate microorganism contamination on patients’ hands is important for preventing infection in hospitals. This descriptive study aimed to examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of patient hand hygiene, and to study the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and practices of hospitalized patients in regard to hand hygiene. The participants included 393 hospitalized patients aged 18 to 60 years old who were admitted to the hospital from October 2015 to January 2016 using a stratified random sampling method. Research instruments were an evaluation form of patients’ daily living activities and the patient hand hygiene questionnaire consisting of four parts: demographic data, knowledge of hand hygiene, attitude towards hand hygiene, and hand hygiene practice. The content validity of each questionnaire was examined by five experts. The content validity indices were .87, .94, and .94, respectively, and the reliability was .73, .78, and .87, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The relationship between variables was analyzed using the Spearman Correlation Coefficients.
The research findings showed that the participants had knowledge of hand hygiene at a high level with a median score of 11 out of 15 points. The participants had attitudes towards hand hygiene at a moderately-high level with a median score of 43 out of 60 points, and hand hygiene practice was at a moderate level with a median score of 28 out of 45 points. It was also found that participant knowledge of and attitude towards hand hygiene were positively correlated at a low level with a statistical significance of .01 (r = .366). Hand hygiene knowledge and practice were positively correlated at a very low level with a statistical significance of .05 (r = .121) while attitude was not correlated with hand hygiene practice (r = .03).
This suggests that all hospitals should prioritize implementing projects that promote hand hygiene among hospitalized patients to reduce the incidence of hospital-associated infection. In addition, health personnel should give advice to patients on hand hygiene, create a positive attitude towards hand hygiene, and motivate patients to practice hand hygiene correctly.
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