BACKGROUND Hand hygiene, a simple and low-cost measure, remains the leading intervention for reducing the burden related to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). While many interventions have been tested to improve staff hand hygiene compliance, hospital visitors continue to have low compliance rates, which increases the risk of HAIs and resistant organisms' transmission into hospitals and out to the community. AIM To assess the effectiveness of educational speech intervention (ESI) for increasing hand hygiene compliance rate among hospital visitors. METHODS This interventional study was conducted from March to June 2019 in an inpatient unit of a large academic hospital. Visitor hand hygiene compliance was observed before and after implementation of ESI. The purpose of providing ESI to the visitors in the intervention phase was to remind them about the importance of hand hygiene and the proper method for cleaning hands. Post-intervention data were collected using the survey questionnaires. Unpaired t-test compared the hand hygiene compliance rate before and after the intervention. FINDINGS Baseline hand hygiene compliance rate was 9.73% while hand hygiene compliance rate post-intervention increased to 87.06% (P<0.001). Barriers to hand hygiene compliance included occupied hands, improper location of hand hygiene supplies, and past habit of not practising hand hygiene. Visitors preferred to be reminded about hand hygiene by verbal reminder (57%), followed by signage (38%), and wristband notices (5%). CONCLUSION The ESI substantially increased visitors' hand hygiene compliance rate. Further studies are warranted to assess the sustainability of ESI and address other barriers to visitors' hand hygiene compliance.

中文翻译：

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教育性言语干预能否改善访客的手部卫生习惯？

背景技术手卫生是一种简单且低成本的措施，仍然是减少与医疗保健相关感染（HAIs）相关的负担的主要干预措施。尽管已对许多干预措施进行了测试，以改善员工手部卫生的合规性，但医院来访者的合规率仍然较低，这增加了HAI和耐药菌传播到医院和社区的风险。目的评估教育语音干预（ESI）的有效性，以提高医院访客中手部卫生的达标率。方法这项干预性研究于2019年3月至2019年6月在一家大型学术医院的住院单元中进行。在实施ESI之前和之后均观察到访客的手部卫生状况。在干预阶段向访问者提供ESI的目的是提醒他们手部卫生的重要性以及正确的洗手方法。干预后的数据是使用调查问卷收集的。未配对的t检验比较了干预前后的手卫生依从率。结果基线手卫生依从率是9.73％，而干预后手卫生依从率增加到87.06％（P <0.001）。遵守手卫生的障碍包括双手被占用，手卫生用品的位置不正确以及过去不进行手卫生的习惯。访客希望通过言语提醒（57％），其次是标牌（38％）和腕带通知（5％）来提醒手部卫生。结论ESI大大提高了访客的手部卫生达标率。