Prevention of disease?

Hand washing has been shown to be the most effective measure in infection control to prevent cross contamination of disease in a number of research studies (Hugonnet & Pitte, 2000). With a 3rd of infections being preventable with good hand hygiene (Judah et al. 2009), however, young children often do not have the appropriate etiquette and knowledge in order to readily implement hand washing routines, therefore educational resources and interventions are often required in order for them to do so (Randle et al. 2013)

It has been shown that children learning why and how to wash their hands is perceived as important by teachers and knowledge about the spread of germs was important to pupils when implementing hygiene practices in a randomised controlled study in primary schools on factors influencing hand washing (Chittleborough et al. 2012).