COMPARISON OF EFFICACY OF THREE DIFFERENT METHODS OF HAND DRYING IN HAND HYGIENE- A RANDOMISED CONTROL TRIAL

Objective -To compare the efficacy of 3 different methods of hand drying in hand hygiene. Efficacy is defined as quantitative reduction in bacterial growth following hand drying.Subjects and Methods - 25 Health care personnel comprising of doctors and nurses participated in this Single blinded Randomized Prospective study in a tertiary care newborn unit. After 2 minute hand washing using ordinary soap,personnel were randomly allocated to 3 different methodologies of hand drying(air drying till hands were felt to be dry, air drying for 3 minutes and drying using autoclaved newspaper). After 24 hours incubation bacterial colony counts from wet and dry hands were determined in both Nutrient agar and Mac Conkeys medium.The mean difference between the bacterial colony count on wet hands and after drying were analyzed using a nonparametric analysis.Results- In MacConkeys medium the mean reduction in bacterial colony count in air drying for 3 minutes was more (55.8) , followed by air drying till hands were felt to be dry(30.2) and less in autoclaved newspaper method (9.8).This difference was statistically significant(p0.03) . Conclusion-Air drying for 3 minutes is more efficient in reducing bacterial colony count than the other methodologies used in this study