• Sung-Ching Pan, Kuei-Lien Tien, I-Chen Hung, Yu-Jiun Lin, Ya-Ling Yang, Ming-Chin Yang, Ming-Jiuh Wang, Shan-Chwen Chang, and Yee-Chun Chen.
• Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
• Am J Infect Control. 2013 Nov 1;41(11):979-83.

Background"Patient empowerment" is an important component of World Health Organization hand hygiene program, but little is known about the intentions and attitude of patients/families and health care workers (HCWs) regarding this.MethodsA cross-sectional survey using questionnaires was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital in Taiwan to assess hand hygiene knowledge and the attitudes and intentions regarding patient empowerment among patients/families and HCWs.ResultsAmong patients/families, 95.4% (329/345) had positive attitudes regarding patient empowerment; however, only 67.2% (232/345) had the positive intention to remind HCWs about hand hygiene (P < .001). Risk factors for negative intention were being female (odds ratio [OR], 1.82; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-3.03), illiteracy (OR, 3.18; 95% CI: 0.86-11.7), and being patients/families in the pediatric department (OR, 1.86; 95% CI: 0.93-3.64). Among HCWs, the difference between positive attitude (81.1%; 714/880) and positive intention regarding being reminded about hand hygiene (62.8%; 553/880) was significant (P < .001). Risk factors for negative intention were age > 25 years (OR, 3.20; 95% CI: 1.51-6.81) and a negative attitude toward patient empowerment (OR, 10.00; 95% CI: 5.88-16.67).ConclusionThere were significant gaps between attitude and intention regarding patient empowerment both among patients/families and HCWs. Special strategies targeting women, the pediatric population, or illiterate people may help improve patient/family participation. Additionally, hand hygiene education should be incorporated into early-stage medical/nursing education to create a facilitating environment. Patients/families and HCWs cooperation is needed to promote the hand hygiene program further.Copyright © 2013 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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