Hand hygiene.pdf

PART V. PROVIDING INFORMATION
TO THE PUBLIC
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMING THE PUBLIC
Information to the public outlines processes and strategies for disseminating specific information.
This is important for various reasons. Firstly, many public health advocates argue
that large numbers of target populations (mothers, children, adolescents, etc.) cannot make
informed decisions or exhibit informed behaviours about their own or their families’ health.
Secondly, patients’ families and community volunteers, particularly in developing countries,
often provide patient care or offer support during the delivery of care in hospitals and
community health centres and at home. Accordingly, efforts are needed on the part of the
government or health authorities to ensure that, for example, appropriate hand hygiene
information and messages are brought to the attention of the public. Thirdly, the knowledge,
training, practices and motivation of HCWs, who are also members of the public, can be
further reinforced with secondary information and messages.
It has been proposed by many authors active in the area of hand hygiene that multimodal
and multidisciplinary strategies are necessary for improving hand hygiene practices in
health-care settings 572 . Delivering information to the public can be seen as one of the many
strategies and a key factor within the overall framework of hand hygiene promotion.
2. DOCUMENTING PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS
The mass media are probably the most influential promotional vehicle at our disposal.
They frequently cover health-related issues and are the leading source of information to the
public. Other methods for disseminating information to the public and raising awareness
include the use of nongovernmental organizations or national agencies to reach communities
through grass-roots activities and products such as leaflets, radio and television
broadcasts, web sites and portals, health visitors, community plays and meetings. Schoolbased
hand hygiene education and dissemination of information at the workplace are also
effective means for disseminating health information to target groups.
In The World Health Report 2002 715 , WHO reported on a series of comprehensive
approaches that have been implemented at the national level to reduce specific risks in
health care, taking into account a variety of interventions that include disseminating information
to the public, mainly through media outreach. The report presents several examples
of mass media campaigns that have had a positive impact on target audiences. These include
a mass media campaign to diminish the risks of high blood pressure and cholesterol 716 ,
a population-wide mass media campaign to prevent HIV/AIDS 717 , and information to the
public to reduce tobacco consumption 718,719 .