Resources / Improving Measures of Handwashing Behavior

Summary

The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) conducted a cross-sectional survey in six rural areas in Bangladesh to explore hand washing behaviour. The authors aimed to examine the reactivity of the subject with respect to hand washing behaviour when under observation, to determine the optimum duration of structured observation for the purpose of measuring hand washing behaviour, to determine the change in soap-use behaviour during the repeated structured observations in the same household, to determine if measurements predict hand contamination, and to measure the rate of recontamination. The study suggests the potential utility of sensor soap, a novel technology for measuring soap use at the household level. In addition, the study also finds that structured observation, while yielding detailed information on hand washing behaviour, is subject to reactivity from the subject and calls into question the validity of hand microbiology, given the great variability of results from the same person's hands over the course of just a few hours.