Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 7;18(1):116.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-018-3029-5.

An educational intervention to improve hand hygiene compliance in Vietnam

Hang Thi Phan  1 , Hang Thi Thuy Tran  2 , Hanh Thi My Tran  2 , Anh Pham Phuong Dinh  2 , Ha Thanh Ngo  2 , Jenny Theorell-Haglow  3 , Christopher J Gordon  4
Affiliations

An educational intervention to improve hand hygiene compliance in Vietnam

Hang Thi Phan et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Hand hygiene compliance is the basis of infection control programs. In developing countries models to improve hand hygiene compliance to reduce healthcare acquired infections are required. The aim of this study was to determine hand hygiene compliance following an educational program in an obstetric and gynecological hospital in Vietnam.

Methods: Health care workers from neonatal intensive care, delivery suite and a surgical ward from Hung Vuong Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam undertook a 4-h educational program targeting hand hygiene. Compliance was monitored monthly for six months following the intervention. Hand hygiene knowledge was assessed at baseline and after six months of the study.

Results: There were 7124 opportunities over 370 hand hygiene recording sessions with 1531 opportunities at baseline and 1620 at 6 months following the intervention. Hand hygiene compliance increased significantly from baseline across all sites (43.6% [95% Confidence interval CI: 41.1-46.1] to 63% [95% CI: 60.6-65.3]; p < 0.0001). Health care worker hand hygiene compliance increased significantly after intervention (p < 0.0001). There were significant improvements in knowledge scores from baseline to 2 months post educational intervention with mean difference standard deviations (SD): 1.5 (2.5); p < 0.001).

Conclusions: A simple educational model was implemented in a Vietnamese hospital that revealed good hand hygiene compliance for an extended period of time. Hand hygiene knowledge increased during the intervention. This hand hygiene model could be used in developing countries were resources are limited.

Keywords: Compliance; Developing country; Education; Hand hygiene; Infection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was granted by the Institutional Ethical Review Committee of Hung Vuong hospital in July 2014 (158 QD-BVHV). All participants provided written, informed consent prior to commencing the study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Change in monthly hand hygiene compliance during the study for each hospital department. Error bars have been removed to improve clarity. Commencement of each six-month observation period across the three departments was staggered to align immediately following each department’s HH educational training period
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Allegranzi B, Bagheri Nejad S, Combescure C, Graafmans W, Attar H, Donaldson L, Pittet D. Burden of endemic health-care-associated infection in developing countries: systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2011;377(9761):228–241. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61458-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Report on the burden of endemic health care-associated infection worldwide. Geneva: World Health Organization Press; 2011. Available http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/80135/1/9789241501507_eng.pdf
    1. JM B, Pittet D. Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America/Association for Professionals in infection control/Infectious Diseases Society of America; morbidity mortality weekly report. 2002. Healthcare infection control practices advisory committee, HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA hand hygiene task force: guideline for hand hygiene in health-care settings: recommendations of the healthcare infection control practices advisory committee and the HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA hand hygiene task force; pp. 51–45. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in health care. Geneva; 2009. Available http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44102/1/9789241597906_eng.pdf. Accessed 10 Mar 2017.
    1. Salmon S, Nguyen V, McLaws M, Pittet D, Kilpatrick C, Le T, Truong A. Hand hygiene campaigns in a low resource context: a Vietnam perspective. BioMed Central Proceedings. 2011;5(Suppl 6):O22.

Publication types