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. 2022 Oct 14;19(20):13282.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192013282.

Hand-to-Face Contact of Preschoolers during Indoor Activities in Childcare Facilities in the Republic of Korea

Hyang Soon Oh  1 , Mikyung Ryu  2
Affiliations

Hand-to-Face Contact of Preschoolers during Indoor Activities in Childcare Facilities in the Republic of Korea

Hyang Soon Oh et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to characterize hand-to-face contact (HFC) in children and analyze the factors that affect HFC behaviors of preschoolers in childcare facilities in Korea.

Methods: Thirty preschoolers aged between 13 and 84 months were enrolled with parents' voluntary participation. Videotaping (10 children/childcare center/2 h) and video reading was performed from 23 November 2018 to 7 January 2019.

Results: A total of 2719 cases of HFC were observed in 30 participants within 2 h. The average contact with the facial mucosa (frequency/person/2 h) was 55.6 ± 42.2, of which the mouth (25.4 ± 23.9), the nose (20.4 ± 24.5), and the eye (9.8 ± 11.7) were the most frequent contacts, in that order. The average contact duration (sec/person/2 h) with the facial mucosa was 232.6 ± 169.7, of which the mouth (145.2 ± 150), the nose (57.6 ± 62.2), and the eyes (29.7 ± 42.3) were the longest in that order. The density distribution of the frequency and duration of mucosal contact was wider in boys than in girls. The mucosal and non-mucosal contact frequencies were significantly higher in boys (p = 0.027 and p = 0.030, respectively).

Conclusion: Children's HFC frequency and duration were highest for the mouth, nose, and eyes. Boys tended to have a higher contact frequency than girls for both mucous and non-mucous HFC.

Keywords: contact behavior; hand hygiene; preschool children; self-inoculation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Hand-to-face contact frequency (n = 30, 2 h observation time, frequency/person/2 h); (b) Hand-to-face contact duration (n = 30, 2 h observation time, sec/person/2 h).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Visualizing frequency of hand-to-face contact (number/person/2 h). The color bar expresses the contact frequency from 0 to 25. The darker the color, the more frequent the contact.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Density distribution of frequency and duration in hand-to-face contact by gender. Density of contact frequency = number/contact frequency-group width; Density of contact duration = number/contact duration-group width.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differences in contact frequency and contact duration by child age and gender. Single variance analysis (n = 30, 2 h observation time).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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