Evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions to improve hand disinfection in primary schools and secondary schools in Da Lat city of Lam Dong province in 2022

Abstract

The objective of the study is to evaluate of the effectiveness of interventions to improve hand disinfection in primary schools and secondary schools in Da Lat city of Lam Dong province in 2022; and then propose the use of automatic hand sanitizer dispensers. We conducted a cross-sectional and intervention study. The first phase conducted a survey with 1000 primary and secondary school students in Da Lat city of Lam Dong province to collect information about their knowledge and practice of hand disinfection. In the second phase, we proceed to install the automatic hand sanitizer dispenser, determined the effectiveness index on improving the correct hand disinfection habits through a pre-designed questionnaire. The rate of knowledge of hand disinfection reached 52% and 86%, respectively, before and after the intervention. The correct hand disinfection practice before and after the intervention was 85.5% and 92.4%, respectively. This is statistically significant when the efficiency index of the comparison p1 - p2 and p3 - p4 is lower than 0.05. Schools were provided with 100 automatic hand sanitizer dispensers, and the knowledge as well as practices of correct hand washing were improved after the interventions. At the same time, it is recommended to expand the use of automatic hand sanitizer dispensers and the training of handwashing for other schools in Lam Dong province.