Wash your hands! And remember, soap is your friend
It's been mantra of public health officials since the swine flu outbreak in the spring: wash your hands.
But you never hear folks instruct how. Seems pretty ridiculous doesn't it? Everyone knows how to wash their hands, don't they?
Well, apparently they do not. Lots of people are forgetting a crucial companion in the handwashing game: soap.
A new study appearing in the American Journal of Public Health takes an examination of British handwashing trends, specifically after people had exited the loo.
Researchers installed sensors in highway service station bathrooms to record soap use in about 200,000 people. Flashing signs reading such messages as "Don't be a dirty soap dodger" and "Don't be a dope, use soap" encouraged people to wash their hands the right way. Researchers alternated between more than two dozen reminders, from the gentle to the heavy handed. They also tested what happened when people didn't get a reminder.
Without reminders, only 32 percent of men washed their hands with soap. Seriously, guys! Women did twice as better -- 64 percent. Still, ewwwww. I'm disturbed.
People who got reminders did a little bit better. But what's really fascinating is the kind of reminders people responded to.
Women increased their soap use regardless of the kind of message reminding them to do so. But they increased their use the most --9.4 percent -- with simple messages such as "wash your hands with soap." Men, meanwhile, preferred messages that signaled disgust. They increased their soap use --9.8 percent -- after reading signs that said "soap it off or eat it later." Gross.
Overall among men and women, guilt was most effective, as in: "Is the person next to you using soap?" Maybe folks should ask themselves this more often.
photo: AFP/Getty
Comments
Such a bizarre peek into human nature!
Posted by: Mary | October 15, 2009 3:10 PM
i wash my hands doctor-style...lots of soap and scrubbing for at least 30 seconds. and men are so gross! they touch their penises while peeing and then don't wash their hands...no more hand shaking for me!
Posted by: nicole | October 15, 2009 3:25 PM
Admit to being more vigilant about soap 'all the time' as opposed to sometime since the flu season has started. What has always amazed me is the way fingernails are never mentioned as part of clean hand hygeine. Fingernails really need to be kept on the short side to effectively have clean hands. Several family members have longer finger nails and surprise - these people seem to be sick more often. One woman had cultivated nails that were starting to curl under from excessive length. Ugh....
Posted by: ruth | October 15, 2009 3:50 PM
I'm not surprised. Men don't have to use toilet paper like women do so they may not see the need to wash their hands.
Posted by: Carolyn | October 15, 2009 5:40 PM
My Granny would say: washing your hands means using soap AND water; if no soap, then you are only rinsing.
How do some female co-workers
wash their hands? They 'wave'
their soapless fingers under running water, then leave by touching the door handle/knob. Yuk. Irony is that one of these co-workers wanted to post a sign about proper hand washing - when she doesn't do so herself!
Posted by: cobaltcats | October 15, 2009 11:56 PM
I read about a study where men actually "see" or perceive dirt differently than women. What a surprise. If you want to be grossed out more than usual, go to a place like China, where you can watch the majority of people totally bypass the soap after using the restroom or the sink altogether. This is in a decent restaurant!
Posted by: Mary Anne | October 16, 2009 2:18 AM
Without soap, water merely moves germs around on the hands -- it does not rinse them off.
To prove this point, we used Glo Germ -- a solution that simulates germs and glows under black light -- to show what happens when one "washes" one's hands with water only versus washing them with SOAP and water. The pictures can be found here: http://www.newswise.com/articles/no-soap-then-hand-washing-is-a-waste-of-time22
Posted by: Holly | October 16, 2009 9:14 AM