Telling students to wash their hands isn't enough: new research identifies barriers to handwashing compliance in a university residence
Food safety researcher and talk-show host Jon Stewart got it right back in 2002 when he said,
“If you think the 10 commandments being posted in a school is going to change behavior of children, then you think “Employees Must Wash Hands” is keeping the piss out of your happy meals. It's not.”
Instead, getting college students to wash hands, halt disease, requires giving them proper tools and spreading the word in ways that get attention: the path to poor hand sanitation is paved with good intentions, according to researchers from Kansas State and North Carolina State Universities.
As college campuses prepare for an expected increase in H1N1 flu this fall, the researchers said students' actions will speak louder than words.
"Many students say they routinely wash their hands," said Douglas Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University. "But even in an outbreak situation, many students simply don't."
In February 2006, Powell and two colleagues — Ben Chapman, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, and research assistant Brae Surgeoner — observed hand sanitation behavior during an outbreak. What was thought to have been norovirus sickened nearly 340 students at the University of Guelph in Canada.
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Hand sanitation stations and informational posters were stationed at the entrance to a residence hall cafeteria, where the potential for cross-contamination was high. The researchers observed that even during a high-profile outbreak, students followed recommended hand hygiene procedures just 17 percent of the time. In a self-reported survey after the outbreak had subsided, 83 of 100 students surveyed said they always followed proper hand hygiene but estimated that less than half of their peers did the same.
The results appear in the September issue of the Journal of Environmental Health.
Powell said that in addition to providing the basic tools for hand washing – vigorous running water, soap and paper towels — college students, especially those living in residence halls, need a variety of messages and media continually encouraging them to practice good hand hygiene.
"Telling people to wash their hands or posting signs that say, 'Wash your hands' isn’t enough," said Ben Chapman, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University. "Public health officials need to be creative with their communication methods and messages."
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Most students surveyed perceived at least one barrier to following recommended hand hygiene procedures. More than 90 percent cited the lack of soap, paper towels or hand sanitizer. Additional perceived barriers were the notion that hand washing causes irritation and dryness, along with just being lazy and forgetful about hand washing. Fewer than 7 percent said a lack of knowledge of the recommended hand hygiene procedures was a barrier.
"Providing more facts is not going to get students to wash their hands," Powell said. "Compelling messages using a variety of media – text messages, Facebook and traditional posters with surprising images — may increase hand washing rates and ultimately lead to fewer sick people."
University students’ hand hygiene practice during a gastrointestinal outbreak in residence: What they say they do and what they actually do
01.sep.09
Journal of Environmental Health Sept. issue 72(2): 24-28
Brae V. Surgeoner, MS, Benjamin J. Chapman, PhD, and Douglas A. Powell, PhD
http://www.neha.org/JEH/2009_abstracts.htm#University_Students%92_Hand_Hygiene_Practice_During_a_Gastrointestinal_Outbreak_in_Residence:_What_They_Say_They_DO_and_What_They_Actually_Do
Abstract
Published research on outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness has focused primarily on the results of epidemiological and clinical data collected postoutbreak; little research has been done on actual preventative practices during an outbreak. In this study, the authors observed student compliance with hand hygiene recommendations at the height of a suspected norovirus outbreak in a university residence in Ontario, Canada. Data on observed practices was compared to post-outbreak self-report surveys administered to students to examine their beliefs and perceptions about hand hygiene. Observed compliance with prescribed hand hygiene recommendations occurred 17.4% of the time. Despite knowledge of hand hygiene protocols and low compliance, 83.0% of students indicated that they practiced correct hand hygiene during the outbreak. To proactively prepare for future outbreaks, a current and thorough crisis communications and management strategy, targeted at a university student audience and supplemented with proper hand washing tools, should be enacted by residence administration.
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'Multiple little failures add up' and cause outbreaks
This is a food safety story with no dead bodies, no sick people, and a company responding appropriately to questions raised by inspectors.
Mike Hughlett writes in tomorrow’s Chicago Tribune today that,
When food-safety inspectors called on Panera Bread Co.'s Chicago dough plant earlier this year, they found a host of manufacturing deficiencies.
For instance, a worker was spotted welding near a batch of bread dough -- a contamination risk -- while some dough was observed in dirty containers.
Panera's records also indicated that in just over a year, the Chicago plant, which makes bread dough for 124 outlets in four states, fielded 10 complaints from consumers who had found foreign objects, mostly metal, in their food, including a washer discovered in a whole-grain bagel. …
The lesson is: Deviations from good manufacturing practices, which are at issue at Panera's plant, often are at the heart of food-safety fiascoes. Companies either learn from the errors, as Panera said it did, or the risk increases that the next incident will be more serious.
Doug Powell, a food safety expert at Kansas State University, said,
"It's multiple little failures that add up; these are warning signs.”
Martin Cole, who heads the Illinois Institute of Technology's National Center for Food Safety and Technology agreed, adding,
such failures are "fairly common, I'm afraid."
Don't eat poop cupcakes and more
Things are winding down at Kansas State University for the year – at least on the teaching side. In the past, Amy and I have planned some exotic trip to France or Canada to get out of Kansas for the summer, but this year, we’re staying fairly put, with baby Sorenne. Maybe she’ll get acclimated to the heat.
On Friday, for the second year now, Amy hosted the Modern Languages departmental end-of-semester soiree, where all the language professors get together in a Tower of Babel sorta thing. Good fun, good food. And in a food porn moment, Katie made language-based cupcakes. What’s your favorite?
(Oh, and the A-Goo cupcake was in honor of baby Sorenne, cause she says that a lot.)
bites
bites ... it'll be here sooner than I think, but never quite fast enough
'Hand sanity' at Kansas State
Maybe hand sanitation.
The reporter called me and I gave her some stuff, but she eventually talked to food science MSc student and barfblogger Andrew Reece, who -- fresh off his microwave cooking video -- said students should pay attention to packaging labels and that using a microwave oven to cook food is not a proper substitute for a standard oven if that's what a package calls for."Sometimes packaging can be really vague, and the food may seem fully cooked, but isn't."
Additionally, students can visit foodsafety.ksu.edu and barfblog.ksu.edu for more information about food safety.
Way to plug the home team.
Joye Gordon, associate professor of journalism, said a common cause of foodborne illness locally is that students' refrigerators are not kept cold enough, adding,
"They should keep the temperature 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Some pathogens thrive in cold temperatures."
Anyone want to comment on that?
Kansas wins NCAA men's basketball
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People on TV swarming the streets in Lawrence are saying this is the happiest moment of their entire lives.Ahem …
Being Canadian, I don't get all the intra-state rivalry; this KU logo may draw more vigorous complaints than Honduran cantaloupes.
But I say, good for Kansas. And besides, Kansas State was one of three teams that actually beat KU this season.
Now, about that hockey arena …
Vet shortage threatens food system: what Kansas State is doing
There is a severe shortage of veterinarians who treat farm animals or work as government inspectors. The scarcity is most severe in the USA's Farm Belt, the lightly populated rural areas in the Midwest that produce much of the nation's meat.
Gregory Hammer, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association says,"
"We're in a crisis situation. We don't have enough rural veterinarians to be a first line of defense against animal diseases."
The number of vets needed will grow by 22,000 by 2016, making it one of the fastest-growing professions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
The nation's 28 veterinarian schools produce 2,500 graduates a year, a number that hasn't changed in three decades. Baby boomer retirements — especially among farm vets — hasten the shortage.
Ralph C. Richardson (right), dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University and all-around cool guy wrote in today's USA Today today thatThe Kansas Legislature, in concert with the veterinary college at Kansas State University, has established "The Veterinary Training Program for Rural Kansas" as a way to ensure an adequate number of veterinarians practicing in rural Kansas.
It allows a veterinary student to borrow $80,000 over a four-year period while in college. After graduation, $20,000 worth of educational debt is forgiven for every year up to four years that these new graduates practice in rural Kansas. This opportunity is granted to five KSU veterinary students every year.
The VTPRK allows new graduates to establish themselves in underserved areas without worrying about paying back large educational debts.
Kansas and Kansas State University are committed to keeping rural America thriving and to ensuring the safety of the urban food supply.
