Work

Hand hygiene and risk of influenza virus infections in the community: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Year: 2014

Type: review

Study designs: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis

Abstract: Community-based prevention strategies for seasonal and pandemic influenza are essential to minimize their potential threat to public health. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of hand hygiene interventions in reducing influenza transmission in the community and to investigate the possible modifying effects of latitude, temperature and humidity on hand hygiene efficacy. We identified 979 articles in the initial search and 10 randomized controlled trials met our inclusion criteria. The combination of hand hygiene with facemasks was found to have statistically significant efficacy against laboratory-confirmed influenza while hand hygiene alone did not. Our meta-regression model did not identify statistically significant effects of latitude, temperature or humidity on the efficacy of hand hygiene. Our findings highlight the potential importance of interventions that protect against multiple modes of influenza transmission, and the modest efficacy of hand hygiene suggests that additional measures besides hand hygiene may also be important to control influenza.

Source: Epidemiology and Infection

DOI: 10.1017/s095026881400003x

Authors: V. W. Y. WONG, B. J. COWLING, A. E. AIELLO

Institutions: University of Hong Kong, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Language: English

Topic: Influenza Virus Research Studies

Subfield: Epidemiology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences