Comparative study of hygiene habits in three different groups in Hungary

Csenge Földvári-Nagy^{1, 2}, Kincső Csepke Földvári-Nagy³, *Dezső Módos⁴, Katalin Lenti⁴

Summary
Introduction. Gastrointestinal and urogenital infections cause great costs to health system and are responsible for many deaths all over the world. Personal hygiene is the simplest, most cost-effective method of prevention against these infections.
Aim. The aim of our study was to investigate personal hygiene habits of a selected Hungarian subpopulations and explore the subject of hygienic education.
Material and methods. 324 participants from three Hungarian subpopulations (high school students, employed university graduates, and health care students and professionals) filled in our self-designed, on-line, self-administered and anonymous questionnaire.
Results. The participants typically washed their hair 1 to 3 times a week, bathed once a day and brushed their teeth 1 to 2 times a day with no significant differences between groups. More than two third of the participants always washed their hands before a meal, but 21% of the respondents did not use soap for washing or did not wash their hands at all. Alarmingly, more than half of health care professionals and students and four fifth of high school students do not wash their hands before using a toilet.
Conclusions. Hand washing habits of the studied population, especially those of high school students, result in a high risk of urogenital, gastrointestinal and, in case of health care employees, nosocomial infections. The importance of health care education of young and adult people is not to be underestimated.

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