SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Hand”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,153 records · Page 64Linked to original sources

PubMed2007

Severity of hand eczema assessed by patients and dermatologist using a photographic guide.

BACKGROUND: The severity of hand eczema is of interest in epidemiological studies. Ideally, as no validated methods of self-assessment exist, a dermatologist should examine all subjects. However, this is very resource intensive. OBJECTIVES: To examine if severity grading performed by patients with hand eczema using a self-administered photographic guide was in agreement with the assessment performed by a trained dermatologist. Furthermore, to measure the correlation between the severity of hand eczema expressed on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the clinical severity assessment, using the photographic guide. METHODS: Fifty-three consecutive outpatients with hand eczema were included, a number based on a prestudy statistical calculation. The patients were asked to grade current severity of their hand eczema by choosing one of four groups of photographs representing differing severities of hand eczema. On the same day all patients were examined by an experienced dermatologist, who graded the severity using the same photographic guide. The photographic guide was a modified version of a validated guide for use by physicians. In addition, the patients rated the severity of their hand eczema on a VAS. RESULTS: Fifty-one of the respondents completed the full questionnaire. For 37 of the 51 patients (73%) the clinical severity assessments of patient and dermatologist were identical. The measure of agreement, Cohen's kappa coefficient, was 0.61, indicating good inter-rater agreement. The correlation between the dermatologist-rated severity and the corresponding score by the patients on the VAS was only moderate (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient rho = 0.52). CONCLUSIONS: The photographic guide for the self-assessment of hand eczema is an easy instrument to use, and for research purposes can be a reliable tool for patients with hand eczema to grade severity. A VAS can only be considered as a mediocre tool for estimation of the dermatologist-rated clinical severity, but should be validated as an independent instrument to assess severity of hand eczema.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Healthcare workers' hand decontamination practices: compliance with recommended guidelines.

AIM: This paper reports a study of healthcare workers' handwashing/hand hygiene practices from a behavioural perspective. BACKGROUND: Hospital acquired infection poses a very real and serious threat to all who are admitted to hospital. Pathogens are readily transmitted on healthcare workers' hands, and hand hygiene substantially reduces this transmission. Evidence-based guidelines for healthcare workers' hand hygiene practices exist, but compliance with these is internationally low. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design with a convenient sample was used. The Predisposing, Reinforcing, Enabling Constructs in Educational Diagnosis and Evaluation Health Education Theory was used as the theoretical framework, and the data were collected in 2001. Healthcare workers' handwashing practices (observation of behaviour, n = 314) and their predisposition (attitudes, beliefs and knowledge) towards compliance with hand hygiene guidelines (questionnaire, n = 62) were studied. Nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and care assistants involved in direct patient care in the study unit participated in the study. The interventional hand hygiene programme aimed to predispose healthcare workers to adopt hand hygiene behaviour (poster campaign and educational handout), reinforce (feedback on pretest results) and enable the behaviour (provision of an alcohol hand rub beside each patients bedside). RESULTS: Implementation of the multifaceted interventional behavioural hand hygiene programme resulted in an overall improvement in compliance with hand hygiene guidelines (51-83%, P < 0.001). Furthermore, healthcare workers believed that their skin condition improved (P < 0.001). An increase in knowledge about handwashing guidelines was also found. CONCLUSIONS: In order to be effective, efforts to improve compliance with handwashing guidelines must be multifaceted. Alcohol hand rubs (with emollients) need to be provided at each patient's bedside. Issues surrounding healthcare workers' skin irritation need to be addressed urgently.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed1990

Body image in rheumatoid arthritis: the relevance of hand appearance to desire for surgery.

To investigate the importance of body image concerns relating to hand appearance in rheumatoid arthritis, a questionnaire was devised and administered to 80 female out-patients. Subjective judgements of hand attractiveness, feelings about hands, and behaviours relating to hand adornment and concealment were sought. Objective ratings of hand attractiveness were obtained from photographs taken at this time of the women's hands. Factor analysis indicated four principal orthogonal factors describe these body image items. Evaluative and affective elements were found to be independent of each other. The hypothesis that body image, thus rated, is relevant to desire for reparative hand surgery was tested using a two-stage general linear modelling procedure. Body image concerns, particularly negative feelings about hands, emerged as significant predictors of desire for surgery, and remained significant after the removal of variance accounted for by duration of arthritis, age, grip strength and objectively rated hand attractiveness. It is suggested that in rheumatoid arthritis, self-perception of hands and the associated emotional response, may be a covert agenda in women's decision to have surgery, and need specific clinical consideration.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Handedness and asymmetry of hand representation in human motor cortex.

The cortical representation of five simple hand and finger movements in the human motor cortex was determined in left- and right-handed people with whole-head magnetoencephalography. Different movements were found to be represented by spatially segregated dipolar sources in primary motor cortex. The spatial arrangement of neuronal sources for digit and wrist movements was nonsomatotopic and varied greatly between subjects. As an estimator of hand area size in primary motor cortex, we determined the smallest cuboid volume enclosing the five dipole sources within the left and right hemisphere of each subject. Interhemispheric comparison revealed a significant increase of this volume in primary motor cortex opposite to the preferred hand. This asymmetry was due to a greater spatial segregation of neuronal dipole generators subserving different hand and finger actions in the dominant hemisphere. Mean Euclidean distances between dipole sources for different movements were 10.7 +/- 3.5 mm in the dominant and 9.4 +/- 3.5 mm in the nondominant hemisphere (mean +/- SD; P = 0. 01, two-tailed t-test). The expansion of hand representation in primary motor cortex could not simply be attributed to a greater number of pyramidal cells devoted to each particular movement as inferred from current source amplitudes. The degree of hemispheric asymmetry of hand area size in the primary motor cortex was correlated highly with the asymmetry of hand performance in a standardized handedness test (r = -0.76, P < 0.01). These results demonstrate for the first time a biological correlate of handedness in human motor cortex. The expansion of hand motor cortex in the dominant hemisphere may provide extra space for the cortical encoding of a greater motor skill repertoire of the preferred hand.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

The hand as a target organ in child abuse.

The authors reviewed the abuse reports submitted by the staff of The Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, to determine the incidence and types of injuries inflicted to children's hands. The authors did not study hand injuries in children who were not reported as physically abused. The authors examined two time periods to ascertain changes injury severity. Of the 631 abuse reports submitted from 1980 to 1982, there were 52 injuries (8.2%) involving the hands. From July 1987 to July 1988 there were 42 hand injuries (13.4%) among 313 reports. In the 94 total cases, 19 (2%) children sustained injury to the hand only, including eight with burns, two with bruises, two with human bites, two with erythema, two with fractures, and one with a laceration. Children with burns to the hand alone were significantly younger than those with other types of injuries. Of the 94 children with hand and other injuries, 18 (20%) required hospital admission. Of the 19 with injuries to the hand only, five required hospital admission. A variety of instruments were used to injure these children. The hand is a delicate organ, and it is frequently the primary or incidental target of child abuse. Familiarity with the patterns and types of hand injury suffered in child abuse is essential for early recognition, reporting, and child protection.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The impact of hand dominance and ulnar and median nerve impairment on strength and basic daily activities.

The authors sought to determine the impact of hand dominance and its relation to function among ulnar alone and combined ulnar and median nerve lesions in leprosy patients. The study sample consisted of 62 persons affected with leprosy (mean age 36.1 years) who were either suffering from ulnar nerve lesions alone (34 patients) or combined ulnar and median lesions (28 patients). The data from the earlier work of this institution with normal hands in the adjacent rural uninvolved population were taken as controls. Grip, pulp-to-pulp, lateral, and three-jaw-chuck pinch strengths were measured using a hydraulic hand dynamometer and a pinch gauge. Basic daily activities were assessed using the battery developed at Karigiri. Means, standard errors, correlations, and t-tests were used in the analyses. The overall difference between grip and pinch strength measurements in both dominant and nondominant hands was 40% less than those in normal hands if the ulnar nerve alone was involved. If impairment of this nerve was combined with that of the median nerve, the overall difference in strength measurements increased to 51%. The hand strength of the dominant side was statistically significant between single and two nerves for pulp-to-pulp pinch (p = 0.019). No other strength tests produced statistically significantly results related to hand dominance (grip strength, lateral, chuck pinch) with either one or two nerve involvement. To observe differences in basic daily activities, scores were compared to Karigiri norms. The bilateral basic daily activities score was impaired by 45% compared with norms with only ulnar nerve involvement and by 59% with ulnar and median nerve involvement. The different pinch strengths related to basic daily activities was not significantly affected in nondominant hands, whether it was ulnar alone or combined ulnar and median nerve lesions. In this population diagnosed with leprosy, ulnar nerve impairment at the level of the elbow reduced the grip and pinch strengths and performance in basic daily activities by 40% and 45%, respectively. If combined with median nerve lesion at wrist level, the strengths and daily activity losses increased to 50% and 60%, respectively. There is no effect on grip strength either in ulnar or ulnar and median nerve injuries, irrespective of whether dominant or nondominant hands were involved. Different pinch strengths related to basic daily activities were significantly affected only in the dominant hand with involvement of these nerves.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2001

Relationship between bone mineral density and radiologic scores of hands in rheumatoid arthritis.

This study proposed to assess the relationship between hand bone mineral density (BMD) and radiographic scoring methods, important measures to assess the course of rheumatoid arthritis. Hand, spine, and femur BMD of 49 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 34 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were measured using dual X-ray absorptiometry and the results were compared. Standard hand films of patients were scored according to five different scoring methods--Larsen method, modified Larsen method, Sharp/van der Heijde modified method, carpo:metacarpal ratio, and simple erosion narrowing score (SENS)--and were correlated with hand BMD. There was a moderate relationship between hand BMD measurements and radiologic scores. SENS was the method that correlated significantly with the highest correlation coefficient. Hand BMD correlated significantly with disease duration and c-reactive protein levels. Hand BMD in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was significantly lower than in control subjects, whereas there was no significant difference in axial BMD measurements. The advantages and disadvantages of hand BMD and radiographic scoring methods were determined. Our results indicate that hand BMD measurements may be as useful is assessing the course of rheumatoid arthritis as radiologic scoring methods. However to prove this, a well-designed reference population for hand BMD and longitudinal studies are required.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗

PubMed1997

A dynamic mechanical model for hand force in right angle nutrunner operation.

A deterministic mechanical model based on physical tool parameters was used for estimating static and dynamic hand forces from kinematic measurements. We investigated the effects of target torque (25, 40, and 55 Nm) and threaded fastener joint hardness (35-, 150-, 300-, 500-, and 900-ms torque buildup time) on hand force. Estimated hand force was affected by target torque and joint hardness. Peak and average dynamic hand force was least for the hard joint (35-ms buildup) and greatest for the medium hardness joint (150-ms buildup). Tool inertia played the major role in reducing hand reaction force. Estimated hand force decreased when the inertial force component increased. Inertial force decreased by 366% when buildup time increased from 35 to 300 ms. Static modeling overestimated hand force; the error ranged from 10% for a soft joint to 40% for a hard joint. Results from direct hand force measurements using a strain gauge dynamometer showed that the dynamic model overestimated peak hand force by 9%. However, average hand force and force impulse were not significantly overestimated.

Hand Strength↗

PubMed2005

Touching a rubber hand: feeling of body ownership is associated with activity in multisensory brain areas.

In the "rubber-hand illusion," the sight of brushing of a rubber hand at the same time as brushing of the person's own hidden hand is sufficient to produce a feeling of ownership of the fake hand. We shown previously that this illusion is associated with activity in the multisensory areas, most notably the ventral premotor cortex (Ehrsson et al., 2004). However, it remains to be demonstrated that this illusion does not simply reflect the dominant role of vision and that the premotor activity does not reflect a visual representation of an object near the hand. To address these issues, we introduce a somatic rubber-hand illusion. The experimenter moved the blindfolded participant's left index finger so that it touched the fake hand, and simultaneously, he touched the participant's real right hand, synchronizing the touches as perfectly as possible. After approximately 9.7 s, this stimulation elicited an illusion that one was touching one's own hand. We scanned brain activity during this illusion and two control conditions, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Activity in the ventral premotor cortices, intraparietal cortices, and the cerebellum was associated with the illusion of touching one's own hand. Furthermore, the rated strength of the illusion correlated with the degree of premotor and cerebellar activity. This finding suggests that the activity in these areas reflects the detection of congruent multisensory signals from one's own body, rather than of visual representations. We propose that this could be the mechanism for the feeling of body ownership.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

MRI of the intrinsic muscles of the hand: spectrum of imaging findings and clinical correlation.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to describe the spectrum of intrinsic hand muscle abnormalities on MRI in patients with clinically evident abnormalities of the intrinsic hand muscles and to correlate clinical and radiologic findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MRI of 21 hands was performed in 19 patients with clinically evident or suspected intrinsic hand muscle abnormalities. All MRI was performed on a 1.5-T scanner using transaxial T1-weighted, T2-weighted, or STIR as well as contrast-enhanced T1-weighted sequences. Two observers reviewed all MR images retrospectively in a blinded fashion with regard to the exact anatomic location of the muscle abnormality, signal abnormalities, muscle atrophy, and the cause. Kappa statistics were used to calculate interobserver variability. MRI findings were compared with clinical findings using Spearman's rank test. A panel of experts assessed the impact of MRI on the diagnostic workup. RESULTS: On the basis of MRI findings, abnormalities (either MR signal abnormality or atrophy) of both the lumbrical and interosseus muscles were noted in 10 (48%) of 21 hands, of the thenar muscles in eight (38%) of 21 hands, and of the hypothenar muscles in 12 (57%) of 21 hands. The correlation between clinical and MRI findings was moderate to strong for the interosseus, thenar, and hypothenar muscles (0.43-0.84). MRI was judged to be useful for establishing the final diagnosis in 17 (81%) of 21 hands. CONCLUSION: MRI of the hands is useful and correlates well with clinical findings in patients with intrinsic hand muscle abnormalities.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The relationship between serum testosterone level and visuomotor learning in right-handed young men.

The relationship between serum testosterone level and visuomotor of learning of hand skill was studied in right-handed young men. Hand skill was assessed by a peg moving task. Peg moving times for the right and left hands linearly decreased at each successive trial (visuomotor learning). The peg moving times for the right and left hands were found to be negatively linearly related to serum testosterone levels: there was a direct relationship between hand skill and testosterone, which was more prominent for the right than the left hand. The slopes of the learning curves for the right hand were found to be equal in subjects with low, normal, and high testosterone. The intercepts of these curves exhibited a shift toward a better hand skill from low- to high-testosterone subjects. The visuomotor learning for the left hand was found to be better in subjects with normal and high testosterone than those with low testosterone. It was concluded that testosterone would favor the visuomotor development especially of the left cerebral hemisphere, probably at puberty; the motor learning of this hemisphere does not seem to be associated with testosterone. Testosterone seems to be advantageous for the visuomotor performance as well as for the motor learning of the right cerebral hemisphere.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

The inverse relationship between nonverbal intelligence and the latency of the Hoffmann reflex from the right and left thenar muscles in right- and left-handed subjects.

The relationship between nonverbal reasoning ability and the latency of the Hoffmann (H) reflex was studied in right- and left-handed subjects. The nonverbal reasoning ability was assessed by the Cattell's Culture Fair Intelligence test. Hand preference was assessed by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Hoffmann reflex was recorded from thenar muscles of the right and left thumbs. In left-handers (total sample), IQ was found to be significantly and negatively linearly related to the H-reflex latency from the left side. In strong left-handers, there was a significant negative linear relationship between IQ and the H-reflex latency from right and left sides, but with a higher correlation for the left side. In weak left-handers, IQ did not show any significant relation to the H-reflex latencies from the right and left sides. In right-handers (total sample), there was a significant negative linear correlation between IQ and the H-reflex latency from the right side. In right-handed women without familial sinistrality (FS-), IQ was found to be inversely related to the H-reflex latency from the right and left side, but with a higher correlation for the right side. In right-handed women with FS, IQ did not show any significant relation to the H-reflex latency from the right and left sides. In right-handed men with right eye preference and FS-, IQ was found to be negatively linearly related to the H-reflex latency from the right and left sides equally. In right-handed men with right eye FS+, mixed eye FS-, +, mixed eye-right foot (FS-), mixed eye-mixed foot, and left eye preference there was no significant relationship between IQ and the H-reflex latency from the right and left sides. Only in strong left-handers there was a significant, positive linear correlation between IQ and the right minus left (R-L) difference of latencies. The H-reflex latency from the right and left sides was not significantly correlated with the R-L difference of latencies in left-handers. In right-handed women with right eye preference FS-, and in right-handed men with right eye preferences FS-, The H-reflex latency from the right side was found to be positively linearly correlated with the R-L difference of latencies. In right-handed women FS+, and in right-handed men FS+, and mixed or left eye preference, the H-reflex latency from the left side was found to be negatively linearly related to the R-L difference of latencies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Female↗

PubMed1981

A case study of reaching by a user of a manually-operated artificial hand.

Reaching involves both transport of the hand toward an object and opening of the hand by an appropriate amount before arrival at the object. Movements of a manually-controlled artificial left-hand are compared with movements of the natural right-hand of a proficient user of an artificial hand. Although picking up of objects was slower with the artificial hand, similarities in opening and transport movements were observed in the two hands. Depsite major mechanical differences in the systems subserving movement in the artificial and natural hands, the similarities extended to the separate movements of the thumb and finger. The strategy of artificial hand control employed by this subject is discussed and related to training new users of artificial hands.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

On the design of robotic hands for brain-machine interface.

Brain-machine interface (BMI) is the latest solution to a lack of control for paralyzed or prosthetic limbs. In this paper the authors focus on the design of anatomical robotic hands that use BMI as a critical intervention in restorative neurosurgery and they justify the requirement for lower-level neuromusculoskeletal details (relating to biomechanics, muscles, peripheral nerves, and some aspects of the spinal cord) in both mechanical and control systems. A person uses his or her hands for intimate contact and dexterous interactions with objects that require the user to control not only the finger endpoint locations but also the forces and the stiffness of the fingers. To recreate all of these human properties in a robotic hand, the most direct and perhaps the optimal approach is to duplicate the anatomical musculoskeletal structure. When a prosthetic hand is anatomically correct, the input to the device can come from the same neural signals that used to arrive at the muscles in the original hand. The more similar the mechanical structure of a prosthetic hand is to a human hand, the less learning time is required for the user to recreate dexterous behavior. In addition, removing some of the nonlinearity from the relationship between the cortical signals and the finger movements into the peripheral controls and hardware vastly simplifies the needed BMI algorithms. (Nonlinearity refers to a system of equations in which effects are not proportional to their causes. Such a system could be difficult or impossible to model.) Finally, if a prosthetic hand can be built so that it is anatomically correct, subcomponents could be integrated back into remaining portions of the user's hand at any transitional locations. In the near future, anatomically correct prosthetic hands could be used in restorative neurosurgery to satisfy the user's needs for both aesthetics and ease of control while also providing the highest possible degree of dexterity.

Brain↗

PubMed1999

Correlation of hand bone mineral density with the metacarpal cortical index and carpo:metacarpal ratio in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

This study proposed an assessment of the correlation of hand bone mineral density measured by dual energy x-ray absorbtiometry (DXA) with the carpo:metacarpal (C:MC) ratio and metacarpal cortical index (CI) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The correlation of total hand BMD, CI and C:MC ratio with BMD at other sites, the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and Larsen scores were also examined. The hand and axial BMD of 30 female patients were also compared with 29 age-matched healthy female controls. Total hand BMD values of patients were significantly lower than the control group. There was no significant difference between groups in axial measurements. CI correlated moderately with the second metacap (II.MC) midshaft and total hand BMD. The C:MC ratio correlated with II.MC midshaft and total hand BMD. Total hand BMD correlated moderately with the AP spine (L2-L4) and femoral neck BMD. Larsen scores showed weak negative correlation with II.MC midshaft BMD and CI. Grip strength correlated weakly only with total hand BMD. The results indicated that CI may reflect cortical bone mass of the hand accurately and did not predict bone density of the spine or hip in patients with RA. The C:MC ratio is a useful method for evaluating progression of wrist involvement and may be related to the loss of hand bone mineral density associated with disease process.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Bone mineral density and clinical hand osteoarthritis in elderly men and women: the Rancho Bernardo study.

OBJECTIVE: Many studies have found increased bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with osteoarthritis (OA). As a result, clinicians may not consider osteoporosis in patients with OA. We examined the relation between hand OA and BMD levels among 1779 community-dwelling, ambulatory white adults aged 50-96 years. METHODS: BMD was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry at the hip, lateral and anteroposterior (AP) lumbar spine, and total body. Both hands of each subject were systematically examined for bony enlargement, swelling, and deformity. RESULTS: Using the American College of Rheumatology criteria for epidemiologic studies, the clinical diagnosis of hand OA was made in 6.6% of men and 14.5% of women. In women, BMD measurements adjusted for age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol, exercise, and current estrogen use were significantly lower only at the hip in those with versus those without hand OA. In contrast, men with hand OA had higher multiply-adjusted mean BMD levels at all sites compared to those without hand OA. These differences were statistically significant only at the AP spine; the absent difference for lateral spine BMD suggests that degenerative changes may explain the higher AP spine BMD levels. Patterns in both men and women were similar in those with isolated hand OA or hand OA in the presence of knee or hip OA. CONCLUSION: OA was not associated with increased BMD levels in men or women. Contrary to expectations the only significant difference was that women with hand OA had lower hip BMD. Thus evaluation for osteoporosis should not be overlooked in women with hand OA.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗

PubMed2003

[Clinicopathologic analysis of 154 cases of tumors and tumor-like lesions in the bones of hands and feet].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical and pathologic features of tumors and tumor-like lesions in the bones of hands and feet. METHODS: Clinical, X-ray and pathologic features of 154 cases of tumors and tumor-like lesions in the bones of hands and feet between 1991 and 2002 were investigated. RESULTS: In the bones of hands and feet the frequency and distribution of many lesions were distinctive when compared to those of other skeletal sites. Cartilaginous lesions were most common (60%), and 72% of them were enchondromas. Enchondromas were most often situated in the second to fifth phalanges and metacarpal bones. Chondroblastomas most frequently involved the irregular bones (such as calcaneus, talus and osnaviculare) of the feet. Whereas the occurance of osteochondromas in the bones of the hands and feet was lower than in the long bones. Most "osteochondromas" of the phalanges were subungual exostoses. A group of reactive or reparative lesions, which are related to trauma, such as subungual exostosis, giant cell reparative granuloma, florid reactive periostitis and bizarre parosteal osteochondromatous proliferations typically occurred in the bones of the hands and feet, but these tumor-like lesions were often misdiagnosted. Another feature of lesions in the bones of the hands and feet was that there were much more benign than malignant lesions (21:1), and that chondrosarcomas were common in malignancies. The diagnostic criteria for benign and malignant cartilaginous tumors in the bones of hands and feet were different from those in long bones and flat bones. CONCLUSIONS: Bone tumors of the hands and feet are different from that of long bones, flat bones and axial bones. Because the hands and feet are frequently exposed to trauma, reactive and reparative lesions often occur in these sites. These tumor-like lesions may simulate benign and malignant neoplasia. Knowledge of different types of lesions which commonly affect these sites is of benefit in assessing lesions of the bones of hands and feet.

Bone Neoplasms↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hand washing and adolescents. A study from seven schools in Konya, Turkey.

The aim of the study was to evaluate how and when adolescent students washed their hands and to detect the conditions that affect hand washing in schools. Seven schools were selected in Konya, Turkey. A questionnaire assessing the answers of 'how long', 'when' (frequency of hand-washing in six conditions with a Likert scale; after toilet, before eating, after eating, entering the home, cleaning a room, when sneezed or coughed), 'how' (hand-washing techniques) and 'why' was given to students. According to self report, person who washed his hands more than or equal to 20 sec and had adequate washing techniques (with soap and water) and had washing frequency score more than 20 was defined as having 'proper basic handwash'. Of a total of 1074 students, 1021 responded. According to self reported behaviours and attitudes, soap and water were used in 99.2% of hand washes, and an alcohol preparation was used in 0.2% of cases and wet paper was used in the remaining 0.6% in the schools. The average duration of soap and water washes was 41.8 +/- 39.1 sec. Overall, 42.4% of adolescents had a proper basic handwash. In multivariate analysis female sex, living at home, high knowledge level and urban school were associated with high proper basic handwash. In addition to this, the presence of some complaints about toilets in school affected proper basic hand wash in univariate analysis. Contrary to what had been expected, a factor such as type of school (health trade school) was not found to be associated with high proper basic handwash in both multivariate and univariate analysis. As a result, adolescents have limited knowledge about indications of hand-washing and some problems adversely influenced hand-washing. To increase compliance, problems should be solved and lessons about hand-washing and communicable disease should be given.

Adolescent↗