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Virology Research Journal
|
Volume 2
Page 26
Note:
allied
academies
IMMUNOLOGY AND CELL BIOLOGY
BACTERIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES
&
Global Summit on
Global Congress on
J u n e 2 5 - 2 6 , 2 0 1 8 | A m s t e r d a m , N e t h e r l a n d s
Joint Event on
A CLUSTER-RANDOMIZED
CONTROLLED TRIAL TO DECREASE
HAND, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASES
IN CHINESE KINDERGARTENS: THE
CLEAN HANDS, HAPPY LIFE PROGRAM
Xiaona Liu
University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands
Objectives:
To evaluate the effect of the clean hands, happy life intervention
on the incidence of hand, food and mouth disease (HFMD) and on school
absences due to sickness in kindergarten students.
Methods:
The intervention consisted of four hand hygiene (HH) promotion
components andwas evaluated ina cluster-randomized controlled trial among
8275 children and 18 kindergartens from May to October, 2015 in Shenzhen,
China. We compared two intervention arms - received the intervention in
kindergartens only and in both kindergartens and families, respectively - to
the control arm that continued usual practice.
Results:
During the follow-up, the incidence of HFMD in both intervention
arms was significantly lower than in the control arm (IRR1: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.26-
0.62; IRR2: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.22-0.57); the duration of absence due to sickness
in both intervention arms was significantly shorter than in the control arm
(β1=0.58, 95% CI: 0.41-0.74; β2=0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.50), controlling for the
area type of kindergarten and grade level of children. Furthermore, during
the follow-up we found that there were fewer episodes of absence due to
respiratory, skin and eye infections (P<0.05).
Conclusions:
Our intervention is effective at reducing HFMD infections and
absence due to sickness in children attending kindergartens in China.
Xiaona Liu is a Postdoc Researcher at the De-
partment of Public Health, University Medical
Center in the Netherlands. She holds two re-
search master degrees and one doctoral de-
gree in Public Health and Infectious Disease
Control. She is specialized in the development
and evaluation of public health interventions for
preventing diseases (both communicable and
non-communicable), combing with strong in-
terests in behavioral change techniques, health
psychology, and implementing research find-
ings into practice. Her work currently involves
Dutch-China joint research on hand hygiene im-
provement, as well as evaluation of the imple-
mentation of preventive programs at different
clinical wards of the Erasmus Hospital in Rotter-
dam, the Netherlands.
x.liu@erasmusmc.nlBIOGRAPHY
Xiaona Liu, Virol Res J 2018, Volume 2