https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBGsoimPXZg

We have all heard the instructions, perhaps barked at us as we are reaching for that after school snack as a child: WASH YOUR HAND FIRST! As adults we may not have someone reminding us, but the duty to wash our hands remains the same. In order to stay healthy and continue to attend to our families, jobs, and social life, we must do our best to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses that can make us sick.

According to Adane, et al. (2018) the critical points to wash your hands include after using a restroom or changing a small child, before eating, feeding a child or preparing food. These crucial times offer the opportunity for bacteria in our environment to enter the body to cause illness. Most illness is caused from a bacteria spread via fecal oral route, and this tiny bacteria that spreads from you-know-where is completely invisible to the naked eye–but can be removed by hand washing. 

If you feel crunched for time, you are not alone. In fact, Chittleborough et al (2012) found that this was the biggest reason for students and faculty to cut the handwashing scene short. In reality, the recommended time for handwashing is the amount of time it takes you to sing “happy birthday” to yourself two times. In hand sight, singing a song we all know by heart a couple of times seems like a small price to pay in order to stay healthy.

References 

Adane, M., Mengistie, B., Mulat, W., Medhin, G., & Kloos, H. (2018). The Most Important Recommended Times of Hand Washing with Soap and Water in Preventing the Occurrence of Acute Diarrhea Among Children Under Five Years of Age in Slums of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Journal of Community Health, 43(2), 400–405. https://library.neit.edu:2404/10.1007/s10900-017-0437-1

Chittleborough, C. R., Nicholson, A. L., Basker, E., Bell, S., & Campbell, R. (2012). Factors influencing hand washing behaviour in primary schools: process evaluation within a randomized controlled trial. Health Education Research, 27(6), 1055–1068.