Hand Hygiene Attitude of the Health-care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate the hand hygiene compliance of health-care professionals during the pandemic.
METHODS: In this descriptive study, a questionnaire which was accessible on “Google Forms” was applied to the doctors and nurses working across Turkey between June and July 2020. The questionnaire consisted of four parts, including sociodemographic data, working status during the pandemic period, hand hygiene compilation, and the hand hygiene belief scale (HHBS).
RESULTS: Nine hundred and forty-four individuals were included in this study. It was found that 312 (33.1%) participants were working with gloves before the pandemic, whereas this number increased to 614 (65.0%) after the pandemic (p<0.001). The number of people using double gloves during the pandemic was 307 (32.5%). There was no difference between gender, profession, duration of the profession, and encounter with a COVID-19 individual in terms of HHBS score (p=0.119, p=0.055, p=0.203, and p=0.450, respectively). While the HHBS score of those who were concerned about COVID was 80.9±16.5, those who did not concerned were 80.3±13.3 (p=0.035). Moreover, the HHBS score was 71.6±23.1 for those who washed their hands 1–4 times, 80.7±13.3 for those who washed their hands 5–9 times, and 80.9±13.8 for those who washed their hands ten and more times (p=0.021). The number of participants who agreed that hand hygiene education was a part of the curriculum was 501 (53.1%).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Although health-care professionals are more careful about hand hygiene during the pandemic period, personal habits may be effective in this behavior.