proem

Medicine

8 years ago

Half of European hand hygiene campaigns lack crucial evaluations, risking public health

BMC Public Health

The role and utilisation of public health evaluations in Europe: a case study of national hand hygiene campaigns

Jonathan Latham, Anna-Pelagia Magiorakos, Dominique L Monnet, Sophie Alleaume, Olov Aspevall, Alexander Blacky, Michael Borg, Maria Ciuruś, Ana Cristina Pereira de Jesus Costa, Robert Cunney, Mojca Dolinšek, Uga Dumpis, Sabine Erne, Ólafur Guðlaugsson, Dana Hedlová, Elisabeth Heisbourg, Jette Holt, Natalia Kerbo, Nina Kristine Sorknes, Outi Lyytikäinen, Helena C. Maltezou, Stavroula Michael, Maria Luisa Moro, Christiane Reichardt, Mária Štefkovičová, Emese Szilágyi, Rolanda Valintėlienė, Rossitza Vatcheva-Dobrevska, Natacha Viseur, Andreas Voß, Suzette Woodward, Laura Cordier, Andreas Jansen

Paper Summary

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Public health evaluations are important to see if programs are working. In Europe, many public health programs are not evaluated. A study looked at hand hygiene campaigns in Europe from 2000 to 2012. They found that only half of the campaigns were evaluated. Most of those used a tool from the World Health Organization. Lack of resources was a big reason why some campaigns were not evaluated. More hand hygiene campaigns are being done in Europe, but many are still not evaluated. Having clear guidelines and tools could help more public health programs get evaluated.