H1N1 INFECTION: HANDWASHING IN PUBLIC RESTROOMS

H1NI INFECTION: HANDWASHING IN PUBLIC RESTROOMS

Joel Snell 

Kirkwood College

Introduction:

Years ago, this author and two others wanted to look at public hygiene in a Medical Sociology course. Each student chose a topic related to social implications of health behavior. One student’s effort was so significant that it was given at a social science consortium. (Snell, J. Wakefield, W. and Norgaard, L. 1972)

Review of the Literature:

Acting as a confederate or what Goffman calls a “non-person” the student was dressed as a janitor/ matienence person in the most used rest room of a very large suburban retail mall. With the blessing of the managers of the mall, his job was to watch which males wash their hands after using the rest room. Why this is important is that even the least invasive strategy of urination involves germs. Thus, long ago, public facilities have been accompanied by hand washing facilities with soap available.

Hypothesis:

The main hypothesis was to see if males wash their hands after going the bathroom when another civilian male or male shopper was also using the bathroom. We thought that

the gray uniformed custodian would not impact behavior as much as a shopper.

Findings:

The overall findings from data taken at various times of the day is that males do not wash their hands in abundance,  with either another shopper in the room or not, there was a high percentage who did not wash their hands. About 60% made no effort to clean their hands with soap and water. Unfortunately, we could not get a count on females. We suggested that perhaps females given their socialization and related genetic contribution (if any) would use more healthy behavior. This of course is an unfortunate stereotype. It is not meant to be or intended to describe males in total.

Further, the statistics on this are less important because it was a preliminary study.

If we stop here, we would improperly state that shaking hands with a male is an important passage of the pandemic H1NI or “swine flu.” They appear to be less clean.

Other studies frankly suggest similar outcomes in terms of hand washing between the

sexes (Haynes, M.C.,1987, Allwood, P.1995, Sliwa, J.2001,and Brownley, C,.2003 )  

However, this introduces the reader to a much larger and more comprehensive study in which our early pilot study appears to be in accordance with this new study and the other studies. This one is from London, using a sensor on soap dispensers; an N of 250,000 subjects was drawn. In this case, hand washing means not only using water, but importantly soap. Soap is a key ingredient along with hand sanitizers to reduce the impact of H1NI. Our findings were rough and preliminary, but over six out of ten did not wash their hands. In another country using a better measure and a lot larger N found that 58% of males did not use soap and water. Other males in the restroom were a mild stimulator though the numbers were not available. Curtis, V. (2009)  

It would appear that even the paucity of data on this subject that two variables remain salient in the literature review. One is that if another “person” is in the restroom, there is a mild diminishment of  non-hand washing and two, clearly males do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom in most or all the studies this author could find.

So it would appear that one of the variables of maleness means that this group may have more of an impact in the spread of infectious diseases. Thus, males may be one contributor as a variable to the spread of pandemic and other infectious diseases.

Conclusion:

This literature review suggest that males are likely not to wash their hands and are not

stimulated to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. This may be an important indicator of social infectious behavior and especially the spread of H1N1.

References:

Allwood, P.(1995) http:www.health.state.us/handyhygiene/stats/faculty.html

Brownlee, C. (2003) http://findarticles/p/articles/m1590/is_8-57/ao_69698655/

Curtis, V. (2009) in Men’s dirty hands The Week, November 6, 24.

Haynes, M.C.(1987)  http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/371.php

Sliwa,J. (2007) http://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/asfm-hhs091307.php

Snell, J. Wakefield, W. & L. Norgaard(1972) Structured public behavior, Sociology & Psychology Symposium, Hastings College, Fall.