How frequently do ordinary citizens practice hand hygiene at appropriate moments during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

Machida, Masaki; Nakamura, Itaru; Saito, Reiko; Nakaya, Tomoki; Hanibuchi, Tomoya; Takamiya, Tomoko; Odagiri, Yuko; Fukushima, Noritoshi; Kikuchi, Hiroyuki; Amagasa, Shiho; Kojima, Takako; Watanabe, Hidehiro; Inoue, Shigeru

We aimed to clarify the status of hand hygiene practices among ordinary citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, in conjunction with the total frequency of daily hand hygiene as an indicator of education and evaluation. This cross-sectional study was based on an Internet survey completed by 2,149 participants (age range: 20-79 years, 51.0% men, response rate: 89.5%), selected during June 23-28, 2020. The participants responded regarding the frequency of implementing hand hygiene at 5 moments (after returning from a public place; after using the toilet; after touching something outside; before eating food; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing). Additionally, participants responded regarding the number of daily hand hygiene events. The cutoff value of the total number of daily hand hygiene events to determine whether hand hygiene was performed in all 5 moments was clarified using ROC analysis. The mean number of hand hygiene events was 10.2 times/day. The prevalence of implementing hand hygiene at each moment ranged from 30.2% to 76.4%; only 21.1% practiced in all moments. Both Youden Index and specificity were high when the cut-off value was 11 times/day. The criterion of hand hygiene: ≥11 times/day may be useful in education and evaluation.