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Gastrointestinal and respiratory infections in children attending daycare centres (DCCs) are common and compliance with hand hygiene (HH) guidelines to prevent infections is generally low. An intervention was developed to increase HH compliance and reduce infections in DCCs. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention on HH compliance. The intervention was evaluated in a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial in 71 DCCs in The Netherlands. Thirty-six DCCs received the intervention including: (1) HH products; (2) training about HH guidelines; (3) two team training sessions aimed at goal setting and formulating HH improvement activities; and (4) reminders and cues for action (posters/stickers). Intervention DCCs were compared to 35 control DCCs that continued usual practice. HH compliance of caregivers and children was observed at baseline and at 1, 3 and 6 months follow-up. Using multilevel logistic regression, odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained for the intervention effect. Of 795 caregivers, 5042 HH opportunities for caregivers and 5606 opportunities for supervising children's HH were observed. At 1 month follow-up caregivers' compliance in intervention DCCs was 66% vs. 43% in control DCCs (OR 6·33, 95% CI 3·71-10·80), and at 6 months 59% vs. 44% (OR 4·13, 95% CI 2·33-7·32). No effect of the intervention was found on supervising children's HH (36% vs. 32%; OR 0·64, 95% CI 0·18-2·33). In conclusion, HH compliance of caregivers increased due to the intervention, therefore dissemination of the intervention can be considered.

Infections are common in children attending daycare centres (DCCs). We evaluated the effect of a hand hygiene (HH) intervention for caregivers on the incidence of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections in children. The intervention was evaluated in a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. Thirty-six DCCs received the intervention including HH products, training sessions, and posters/stickers. Thirty-five control DCCs continued usual practice. Incidence of episodes of diarrhoea and the common cold in children was monitored by parents during 6 months. Using multilevel Poisson regression, incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained. Diarrhoeal incidence was monitored in 545 children for 91 937 days. During follow-up, the incidence was 3·0 episodes per child-year in intervention DCCs vs. 3·4 in control DCCs (IRR 0·90, 95% CI 0·73-1·11). Incidence of the common cold was monitored in 541 children for 91 373 days. During follow-up, the incidence was 8·2 episodes per child-year in intervention DCCs vs. 7·4 in control DCCs (IRR 1·07, 95% CI 0·97-1·19). In this study, no evidence for an effect of the intervention was demonstrated on the incidence of episodes of diarrhoea and the common cold.

Background: The feasibility and predictive validity of balance and gait measures in more severe stages of dementia have been understudied. We evaluated the clinimetric properties of the Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment (POMA) in nursing home residents with dementia with a specific objective of predicting falls in the short term., Methods: Seventy-five ambulatory nursing home residents with dementia, mean age 81 +/- 8 years, participated in a prospective cohort study. All participants underwent the full POMA-test. Fall statistics were retrieved from incident reports during a three-months follow-up period. The predictive validity was expressed in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Loglinear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between POMA scores and the occurrence of a fall., Results: The POMA showed several feasibility problems, with 41% of patients having problems in understanding one or more instructions. The inter-rater reliability of the instrument was good. The predictive validity was acceptable, with a sensitivity of 70-85% and a specificity of 51-61% for the POMA and its subtests, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.70 for POMA-Total (95% CI: 0.53-0.81), 0.67 for POMA-Balance (95% CI: 0.52-0.81), and 0.67 for POMA-Gait (95% CI: 0.53-0.81). After loglinear regression analysis, only POMA-T was significant in predicting a fall (adjusted HR = 1.08 per point lower; 95% CI 1.00-1.17)., Conclusions: Application of the POMA in populations with moderate to severe dementia is hampered by feasibility problems. Its implementation in clinical practice cannot therefore be recommended, despite an acceptable predictive validity. To refine our findings, large prospective studies on the predictive validity of the POMA in populations with mild, moderate and severe dementia are needed. In addition, the performance of mobility assessment methods that are less dependent on cognition should be evaluated.

Objectives: To assess the prevalence and correlates of compliance and noncompliance with hand hygiene guidelines in hospital care., Design: A systematic review of studies published before January 1, 2009, on observed or self-reported compliance rates., Methods: Articles on empirical studies written in English and conducted on general patient populations in industrialized countries were included. The results were grouped by type of healthcare worker before and after patient contact. Correlates contributing to compliance were grouped and listed., Results: We included 96 empirical studies, the majority (n = 65) in intensive care units. In general, the study methods were not very robust and often ill reported. We found an overall median compliance rate of 40%. Unadjusted compliance rates were lower in intensive care units (30%-40%) than in other settings (50%-60%), lower among physicians (32%) than among nurses (48%), and before (21%) rather than after (47%) patient contact. The majority of the time, the situations that were associated with a lower compliance rate were those with a high activity level and/or those in which a physician was involved. The majority of the time, the situations that were associated with a higher compliance rate were those having to do with dirty tasks, the introduction of alcohol-based hand rub or gel, performance feedback, and accessibility of materials. A minority of studies (n = 12) have investigated the behavioral determinants of hand hygiene, of which only 7 report the use of a theoretical framework with inconclusive results., Conclusions: Noncompliance with hand hygiene guidelines is a universal problem, which calls for standardized measures for research and monitoring. Theoretical models from the behavioral sciences should be used internationally and should be adapted to better explain the complexities of hand hygiene.

Objective: To study potential determinants of hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers in the hospital setting., Design: A qualitative study based on structured-interview guidelines, consisting of 9 focus group interviews involving 58 persons and 7 individual interviews. Interview transcripts were subjected to content analysis., Setting: Intensive care units and surgical departments of 5 hospitals of varying size in The Netherlands., Participants: A total of 65 nurses, attending physicians, medical residents, and medical students., Results: Nurses and medical students expressed the importance of hand hygiene for preventing of cross-infection among patients and themselves. Physicians expressed the importance of hand hygiene for self-protection, but they perceived that there is a lack of evidence that handwashing is effective in preventing cross-infection. All participants stated that personal beliefs about the efficacy of hand hygiene and examples and norms provided by senior hospital staff are of major importance for hand hygiene compliance. They further reported that hand hygiene is most often performed after tasks that they perceive to be dirty, and personal protection appeared to be more important for compliance that patient safety. Medical students explicitly mentioned that they copy the behavior of their superiors, which often leads to noncompliance during clinical practice. Physicians mentioned that their noncompliance arises from their belief that the evidence supporting the effectiveness of hand hygiene for prevention of hospital-acquired infections is not strong., Conclusion: The results indicate that beliefs about the importance of self-protection are the main reasons for performing hand hygiene. A lack of positive role models and social norms may hinder compliance.

Background: Falls are a major health problem among the elderly, particularly in nursing homes. Abnormalities of balance and gait, psychoactive drug use, and dementia have been shown to contribute to fall risk., Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the literature to investigate which psychoactive drugs increase fall risk and what is known about the influence of these drugs on gait in nursing home residents with dementia. We included studies with a prospective cohort design on psychoactive drug use in nursing homes with dementia residents and with falls as an outcome measure., Results: Seventeen studies were included in the review. Pooled risk estimates were not calculated because there was no homogeneity across studies. We assessed the strength of evidence for psychoactive drugs as a prognostic factor for falls by defining four levels of evidence: strong, moderate, limited or inconclusive. Strong evidence was defined as consistent findings (> or =80%) in at least two high quality cohorts. We found strong evidence that the use of multiple drugs (3/3 cohorts, effect sizes 1.30-1 xs 0.30), antidepressants (10/12 cohorts, effect sizes 1.10-7.60), and anti-anxiety drugs (2/2 cohorts, effect sizes 1.22-1.32) is associated with increased fall risk. The evidence for the association of other psychoactive drug classes with fall risk was limited or inconclusive., Conclusions: Research on the contribution of psychoactive drugs to fall risk in nursing home residents with dementia is limited. The scarce evidence shows, however, that multiple drugs, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs increase fall risk in nursing home populations with residents with dementia.