STOPFLU : is it possible to reduce the number of days off in office work by improved hand-hygiene?

Peer reviewe

Hand washing with soap and water together with behavioural recommendations prevents infections in common work environment: an open cluster-randomized trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hand hygiene is considered as an important means of infection control. We explored whether guided hand hygiene together with transmission-limiting behaviour reduces infection episodes and lost days of work in a common work environment in an open cluster-randomized 3-arm intervention trial.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 21 clusters (683 persons) were randomized to implement hand hygiene with soap and water (257 persons), with alcohol-based hand rub (202 persons), or to serve as a control (224 persons). Participants in both intervention arms also received standardized instructions on how to limit the transmission of infections. The intervention period (16 months) included the emergence of the 2009 influenza pandemic and the subsequent national hand hygiene campaign influencing also the control arm.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the total follow-up period there was a 6.7% reduction of infection episodes in the soap-and water arm (p = 0.04). Before the onset of the anti-pandemic campaign, a statistically significant (p = 0.002) difference in the mean occurrence of infection episodes was observed between the control (6.0 per year) and the soap-and-water arm (5.0 per year) but not between the control and the alcohol-rub arm (5.6 per year). Neither intervention had a decreasing effect on absence from work.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that intensified hand hygiene using water and soap together with behavioural recommendations can reduce the occurrence of self-reported acute illnesses in common work environment. Surprisingly, the occurrence of reported sick leaves also increased in the soap-and water-arm.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00981877">NCT00981877</a></p> <p>Source of funding</p> <p>The Finnish Work Environment Fund and the National Institute for Health and Welfare.</p

Cause-specific mortality in Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel production workers

BACKGROUND: Although stainless steel has been produced for more than a hundred years, exposure-related mortality data for production workers are limited. AIMS: To describe cause-specific mortality in Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel workers. METHODS: We studied Finnish stainless steel production chain workers employed between 1967 and 2004, from chromite mining to cold rolling of stainless steel, divided into sub-cohorts by production units with specific exposure patterns. We obtained causes of death for the years 1971-2012 from Statistics Finland. We calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) as ratios of observed and expected numbers of deaths based on population mortality rates of the same region. RESULTS: Among 8088 workers studied, overall mortality was significantly decreased (SMR 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70-0.84), largely due to low mortality from diseases of the circulatory system (SMR 0.71; 95% CI 0.61-0.81). In chromite mine, stainless steel melting shop and metallurgical laboratory workers, the SMR for circulatory disease was below 0.4 (SMR 0.33; 95% CI 0.07-0.95, SMR 0.22; 95% CI 0.05-0.65 and SMR 0.16; 95% CI 0.00-0.90, respectively). Mortality from accidents (SMR 0.84; 95% CI 0.67-1.04) and suicides (SMR 0.72; 95% CI 0.56-0.91) was also lower than in the reference population. CONCLUSIONS: Working in the Finnish ferrochromium and stainless steel industry appears not to be associated with increased mortality