Hand Hygiene Status and Its Associated Factors among Housemaids Working in Communal Living Residences in Jimma city, Southwest Ethiopia

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