Protective Effect of Hand-Washing and Good Hygienic Habits Against Seasonal Influenza

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Medicine (Baltimore)
• Personal Author:
  Liu, Mingbin ; Ou, Jianming ; Zhang, Lijie ; Shen, Xiaona ; Hong, Rongtao ; Ma, Huilai ; Zhu, Bao-Ping ; Fontaine, Robert E.
• Description:
  Previous observational studies have reported protective effects of hand-washing in reducing upper respiratory infections, little is known about the associations between hand-washing and good hygienic habits and seasonal influenza infection. We conducted a case-control study to test whether the risk of influenza transmission associated with self-reported hand-washing and unhealthy hygienic habits among residents in Fujian Province, southeastern China.Laboratory confirmed seasonal influenza cases were consecutively included in the study as case-patients (n = 100). For each case, we selected 1 control person matched for age and city of residence. Telephone interview was used to collect information on hand-washing and hygienic habits. The associations were analyzed using conditional logistic regression.Compared with the poorest hand-washing score of 0 to 3, odds ratios of influenza infection decreased progressively from 0.26 to 0.029 as hand-washing score increased from 4 to the maximum of 9 (P < 0.001). Compared with the poorest hygienic habit score of 0 to 2, odds ratios of influenza infection decreased from 0.10 to 0.015 with improving score of hygienic habits (P < 0.001). Independent protective factors against influenza infection included good hygienic habits, higher hand-washing score, providing soap or hand cleaner beside the hand-washing basin, and receiving influenza vaccine.Regular hand-washing and good hygienic habits were associated with a reduced risk of influenza infection. These findings support the general recommendation for nonpharmaceutical interventions against influenza.
• Subjects:
  Case-Control Studies Cities Hand Disinfection Humans Hygiene Influenza, Human Influenza Vaccines Risk Factors
• Source:
  Medicine (Baltimore). 2016; 95(11).
• Pubmed ID:
  26986125
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4839906
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  95
• Issue:
  11
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:2259c576d367b2291c95284a806514bff57377e208598b82985546be496a6f8c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/39879/cdc_39879_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 199.62 KB ]