Prevention of diarrhoea and dysentery by hand washing
Abstract
A 'non-blind' randomized hand washing intervention study was conducted in a low socioeconomic community in Rangoon to determine if hand washing by 494 children under 5 years old and their mothers could reduce the incidence of diarrhoea and dysentery in these children. Children and mothers in the intervention group were asked to wash their hands after defaecation and before preparing or eating their 3 main meals; 2 bars of plain soap were provided. The control group was left to follow customary practice. Diarrhoea and dysentery incidences in the 2 groups were monitored during 4 months by comparing the incidence density ratios (IDR). The diarrhoeal incidence among the children in the hand washing households was significantly lower than that among those in the control households (IDR = 0.70, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.54-0.92). For dysentery incidence, although there was a 40% reduction (IDR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.22-1.55) in the children under 2 years, there seemed to be no impact in older children (IDR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.52-2.80). The study indicates that hand washing is effective in reducing the morbidity from diarrhoea and dysentery.
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- Authors
- Han, A. M., & Hlaing, T.
- ORCID
- Hlaing, Thein
- Venue
- Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1989-01
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 128-131
- ISSN
- 0035-9203 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2066770519
- Cited by
- 105
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Safety and Hygiene
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
- Keywords
- hand washing, diarrhea prevention, dysentery, children under five, soap, incidence density ratio, low socioeconomic communities, Yangon
- MeSH terms
- Child, Preschool, Defecation, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Eating, Female, Hand Disinfection, Humans, Infant, Male, Patient Compliance
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