Table 3.
Religious and cultural aspects of hand hygiene in health care and potential impact and/or solutions
Topic | Potential impact and/or solutions |
---|---|
Hand hygiene practices | • Both inherent and elective hand hygiene practices are deeply influenced by cultural and religious factors. |
• Area for research: potential impact of some religious habits on hand hygiene compliance in health care. | |
Hand gestures | • Consider specific gestures in different cultures to be represented in posters and other promotion material for educational purposes in multimodal hand hygiene campaigns. |
The concept of “visibly dirty” hands | • Consider different skin color, different perception of dirtiness and variation of climate when educating health care workers on hand hygiene indications. |
Prohibition of alcohol use | • Consultation with local clergy and wise interpretation of holy texts. |
• Focus groups on this topic within education strategies. | |
• Use of the most appropriate term for alcohol-based hand rubs. | |
• Careful evaluation of patient involvement. | |
• Areas for research: quantitative studies on potential toxicity of accidental ingestion and inhalation or skin absorption of alcohol related to alcohol-based hand rubs; elimination of alcohol smell. |