Handwashing Research

Selected scientific readings
A compilation of scientific articles on past handwashing studies, hygiene promotion and behavior change.

Borghi et al. 2002. Is hygiene promotion cost-effective? A case study in Burkina Faso. Tropical Medicine and International Health. Volume 7. (2): 960-969.

Bowen, A. et al. 2007. A cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of a handwashing-promotion program in Chinese primary school. The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 76(6): 1166-1173.

Cairncross S. 2003. Handwashing with soap – a new way to prevent ARIs? Tropical Medicine and International Health.

Cairncross S. 2005. What causes sustainable changes in hygiene behaviour? A cross-sectional study from Kerala, India. Social Science and Medicine 61: 2212-2220.

Cousens, S., Mertens, T., Traore. E., Kanki, B., Diallo, I. 1993. "Structured Observations of hygiene behaviours in Burkina Faso: validity, variability and utility" Bulletin of the WHO, 71(1):23-32.

Curtis, V., Cairncross, S., and Yonli, R. 2000."Review: Domestic hygiene and diarrhoea - pinpointing the problem", Tropical Medicine and International Health, 5(1):22-32.

Curtis, V., and Cairncross, S. 2003. Effect of washing hands with soap on diarrhoea risk in the community: a systematic review. Lancet's Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Curtis, V et al. 2003. Hygiene in the home, relating bugs and behaviour. Social Science and Medicine 57: 657-672.

Curtis, V. and Sidibe, M. 2007. Can hygiene be cool and fun? Insights from School children in Senegal. Field Note. Sanitation and Hygiene series.

Curtis et al. 2009. Planned, motivated and habitual hygiene behavior: an eleven country review. Health Education Research.

Ejemot, R. et al. 2008. Handwashing for preventing diarrhea (Review). The Cochrane Library 2008. Issue I.

Feachem, R.G. 1986. "Preventing Diarrhea: what are the policy options?", Health Policy and Planning:1(2):109-117.

Fewtrell, L. et al. 2005. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene interventions to reduce Diarrhea in less developed countries. The Lancet, Vol. 5: 42-52.

Gungoren, B. et al. 2007. Effect of hygiene promotion on the risk of reinfection rate of intestinal parasites in children in rural Uzbekistan. The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 101: 564-569.

ICDDR. 2008. Hand washing behavior in rural Bangladesh. Health and Science Bulletin. Volume 6, number 3, September 2008.

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. "Actions Speak: The study of hygiene behaviour in water and sanitation projects".

Lopez-Quintero et al. 2009. Handwashing among schoolchildren in Bogota, Colombia.  American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 99 (1): 94-101.

Luby, S, et al. 2005. Effect of handwashing on child health: a randomised control trial. The Lancet. 2005 (366): 225-233.

Porzig-Drummond et al. 2009.  Can the emotion of disgust be harnessed to promote hand hygiene? Experimental and field-based tests. Social Science and Medicine. 68 (2009): 1006-1012.

Scott, B. et al. 2007. Health in our hands but not in our heads: understanding hygiene motivation in Ghana. Health Policy and Planning. 2007: 1-9.

Stevenson et al. 2009. A scale for measuring hygiene behavior: Development, reliability and validity. American Journal of Infection Control, 1-8.

UNICEF, 2009. Soap, toilets and taps: How UNICEF supports water, sanitation and hygiene.

Webb L. et al. 2006. A simple index to measure hygiene behaviors. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2006: 1-9.