Effectiveness of handwashing in preventing SARS: A review

Isaac Chun Hai Fung; Sandy Cairncross

doi:10.1111/j.1365-3156.2006.01734.x

Effectiveness of handwashing in preventing SARS: A review

Isaac Chun Hai Fung
, Sandy Cairncross

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Systematic review › peer-review

103 Scopus citations

Abstract

This review examines the literature, including literature in Chinese, on the effectiveness of handwashing as an intervention against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) transmission. Nine of 10 epidemiological studies reviewed showed that handwashing was protective against SARS when comparing infected cases and non-infected controls in univariate analysis, but only in three studies was this result statistically significant in multivariate analysis. There is reason to believe that this is because most of the studies were too small. The evidence for the effectiveness of handwashing as a measure against SARS transmission in health care and community settings is suggestive, but not conclusive.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1749-1758
Number of pages	10
Journal	Tropical Medicine and International Health
Volume	11
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2006.01734.x
State	Published - Nov 2006

Scopus Subject Areas

Parasitology
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Infectious Diseases

Keywords

Communicable disease control
Handwashing
Hygiene
Public health intervention
Severe acute respiratory syndrome

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1111/j.1365-3156.2006.01734.x

Cite this

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title = "Effectiveness of handwashing in preventing SARS: A review",

abstract = "This review examines the literature, including literature in Chinese, on the effectiveness of handwashing as an intervention against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) transmission. Nine of 10 epidemiological studies reviewed showed that handwashing was protective against SARS when comparing infected cases and non-infected controls in univariate analysis, but only in three studies was this result statistically significant in multivariate analysis. There is reason to believe that this is because most of the studies were too small. The evidence for the effectiveness of handwashing as a measure against SARS transmission in health care and community settings is suggestive, but not conclusive.",

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AB - This review examines the literature, including literature in Chinese, on the effectiveness of handwashing as an intervention against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) transmission. Nine of 10 epidemiological studies reviewed showed that handwashing was protective against SARS when comparing infected cases and non-infected controls in univariate analysis, but only in three studies was this result statistically significant in multivariate analysis. There is reason to believe that this is because most of the studies were too small. The evidence for the effectiveness of handwashing as a measure against SARS transmission in health care and community settings is suggestive, but not conclusive.

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JO - Tropical Medicine and International Health

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ER -

Effectiveness of handwashing in preventing SARS: A review

Abstract

Scopus Subject Areas

Keywords

UN SDGs

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