Relationship between hand hygiene and cutaneous findings during COVID19 pandemic

Altunisik Toplu, Sibel; Altunisik, Nihal; Turkmen, Dursun; Ersoy, Yasemin

BACKGROUND: In the current situation of the COVID‐19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) have to comply with hygiene conditions and use gloves more frequently and for a longer period of time than they would previously to avoid infection and prevent transmission. AIMS: We aimed to characterize the adverse skin reactions occurring after hand hygiene and glove use in HCWs in a tertiary university hospital to determine the possible causative factors and whether the use of these measures is affected. METHODS: Between 15 April and 1 May 2020, a cross‐sectional survey was conducted, using on‐line questionnaire, answered by HCWs in a tertiary university hospital. RESULTS: The increase in general hand skin problems during the pandemic period was statistically significant (p = 0.004). The most common symptom was dryness. During the pandemic period, 67 (24.3%) HCWs thought that the conditions were caused by glove use, 197 (71.4%) thought that they were due to alcohol‐based hand antiseptics. The incidence of other hand‐skin conditions except for vesicles was statistically higher in women than in men (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Increased number of hand‐skin conditions during the pandemic should not be ignored, since hand hygiene and glove use are expected to increase.