Knowledge of Hand Hygiene among Ophthalmologists in Northern India: A Cross-sectional Survey

Introduction: Hands of health care workers act as the most common vehicle for the transmission of healthcare associated infections. A good practice of hand hygiene reduces the incidence of these nosocomial infections. There is a dearth of precise data about the awareness of hand hygiene practice amongst Ophthalmologists in India. Aim: To assess the knowledge of hand hygiene amongst the Ophthalmologists and trainees in Uttarakhand and surrounding regions of Northern India. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted by Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences , Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India amongst Ophthalmologists attending a three days long annual ophthalmology conference in Uttarakhand in October 2019, after taking due approval from the Ethics Committee of the Institute. All the 150 participants which were included in the study filled the World Health Organisation (WHO) hand hygiene questionnaire comprising of 10 multiple-choice questions. The respondents were asked to tick the most appropriate choices and scores were given out of a maximum score of 25. Mann Whitney test was used for statistical analysis in the study. Results: A total of 150 subjects participated in the survey among which 70 were females and 80 were males. Of all, 60% of the participants were practicing surgeons while 60 (40%) were postgraduate students. About 126 (84%) reported having received a formal training on hand hygiene. Hands of the health care workers were reported to be the commonest route of cross transmission of germs between the patients and healthcare facilities. The average total score of the participants in the survey was 16 (64%) and there was no significant difference between the scores of participants based on gender and training. Conclusion: The study shows that majority of the Ophthalmologists have formal training and fair knowledge on the basics of hand hygiene, but lacked the in-depth knowledge, which needs to be addressed in order to reduce the incidence of hospital acquired infections.