Abstract:
Background: hand hygiene is a milestone, cost-effective and convenient means to prevent
the transfer of pathogens. Little is known about hand hygiene status and its associated
factors among housemaids working in dwellings.
Objective: The study aimed to assess hand hygiene status and its associated factors among
housemaids working in communal living residences in Jimma city, Southwest Ethiopia.
Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted among 230 housemaids from April to June
2022. Sample was allocated each residence proportionately to their population size and a
simple random sampling technique was applied to select the study participants. Hand
hygiene status and relevant characteristics were collected by face-to-face interviews using
a semi-structured questionnaire and observational checklist. Hand swabs were
collected following sterile conditions for the segregation of commensal microbes. Swabs
were inoculated aseptically using streak-plating methods on mannitol salt agar,
MacConkey agar, salmonella-shigella agar, and Eosin Methylene Blue Agar and then
incubated at 37°C for 24h for bacterial isolation. In addition, a set of biochemical tests
was applied to examine bacterial species. Data was entered into Epidata v3.1.then
exported to SPSS v26 for analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the
associated factors. P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Two hundred twenty-three housemaids were interviewed with a response rate of
97%. The proportion of hand hygiene status was 83% (95%CI: 77.6-87.9). However, the
prevalence of one or more bacterial isolates that tested positive was 72.6% (95%CI: 66.4-
78). The overall good hand hygiene status was 57(25.6%). Its associated factors were
occupational status of households being merchant (AOR=.030, 95%CI: .020, .402),
fingernail status (AOR=1.764, 95% CI: 2.190, 3.424), big effort required to perform good
hand hygiene (AOR=3.790, 95% CI: 1.732, 2.694), very effectiveness of head of household
(AOR=1.865, 95% CI: 1.242, 1.963) and S.aureus (AOR=.104, 95%CI: .015, .776).
Conclusions: Hand hygiene status was poor (74.4%) which needs improvement.
Households of housemaids should be concerned about their employee’s hand hygiene as
well housemaids should follow all necessary steps to keep their hand hygiene wisely
