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Food Focus February 2008

Hand washing survey points the finger at men

The largest survey of its kind ever conducted in New Zealand has shown that our hand washing habits could be causing many fellow New Zealanders to fall ill, but that women beat men hands down when it comes to washing and drying their hands after visiting the toilet

In observational surveys carried out anonymously at shopping centres in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch men consistently lagged behind their more hygiene-conscious female counterparts when it came to using soap and water.

The survey was carried out by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service for NZFSA’s Foodsafe Partnership. Its findings were released to coincide with last year’s National Foodsafe Week, which ran from November 12–19.

Auckland Medical Officer of Health, Dr Greg Simmons, who helped organise the survey, says: “The hand washing habits of the New Zealand public appear to leave much to be desired: 13.3% of those observed did not practise any form of hand hygiene at all after going to the toilet.”

Bypassing the soap

While 92% of women observed made some attempt at hand washing, only 81% of men bothered to turn on the taps at all. Soap was used by 71% of all those who did and over three-quarters (76.9%) of those were women.

Women used soap more often than men in all locations except Hamilton, where 87% of men came clean compared with 77% of women. And Aucklanders displayed less interest in soap overall, with both sexes opting to use it less frequently there than in any other centre.

When it comes to properly lathering up, women again did better. Those who did use soap took more time over the habit overall – washing their hands an average 10% longer (8.8 seconds compared to just 8 seconds for men). When it came to drying, the women also took the lead, taking an average of 8 seconds to dry their hands using a paper towel compared with 7 seconds for men.

The 20+20 rule

However, all the times fall well short of the recommended 20+20 rule promoted by NZFSA and the Ministry of Health: wash hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water and dry for 20 seconds with a clean, dry towel or paper towel.

“Only 7.8% of subjects who washed their hands did so for at least 20 seconds and only 1.3% practised the 20+20 recommendation,” laments Dr Simmons. “Proper hand washing has been proven time and again to be probably the most effective thing anybody can do to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Thorough hand hygiene not only protects the individual but also those around them. Hand hygiene is a critical prerequisite for food safety because it is impossible to have safe food without the cook having clean hands. It’s particularly important to take care with food because it is such a rich source of nutrition for bacteria and numbers can double in very short times – three to four times an hour. It’s also very easy to unknowingly infect large numbers of people.”

Men need to up their game

The survey observed a total of 1200 participants between October and December 2006. Says Dr Simmons: “It highlights a significant disparity between males and females for hand hygiene compliance. A major concern was that one in five males did not wash their hands after visiting the toilet. These differences highlight the need for a shift in the health education strategies to specifically target males. However, both men and women need to take just 10 or 12 seconds longer when washing and drying hands to ensure that they’re not carrying pathogens that could cause others to become ill, sometimes with permanent consequences.”