Remember what Mom told you: Wash your hands to stay healthy
Washing your hands can really make a difference in your health this semester.
A study conducted on campus at the University of Colorado Boulder says students looking to improve their overall health this winter might not have to look far. Titled “The Effect of Hand Hygiene on Illness Rate Among Students in University Residence Halls,” the study comes to a surprisingly simple conclusion.
By posting reminders for students to wash their hands and making hand sanitizing gel available across campus, researchers found that hand hygiene of students improved.
“This resulted in fewer symptoms of [upper-respiratory illness], lower illness rates, and fewer missed school days,” the study’s conclusion states. “This outcome has benefits for both students and the University.”
The leaves are changing and temperatures dropping across the nation this week, and with these transitions cold and flu season fast approaches. And for some students living in the dorms, this might not be such a welcome transition.
“Group living environments, such as residence halls, make the spread of transmissible diseases and upper-respiratory illness more likely,” the study states. “As in classroom situations, students in residence halls may be less likely to regularly wash their hands due to the absence of sinks in their rooms and the inconvenience of walking to washrooms to do so.”
JoEllen Anderson is the administrative director and nurse practitioner at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She said there’s another factor at work in the spread of disease in residence halls as well.
“Diseases are more easily spread because of the close proximity everyone lives in,” Anderson said.
Catching a bug mid-semester could have greater consequences as well. The findings of the Spring 2011 American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) showed that of the 44.7% of students who reported they had fallen ill in the past 12 months, 40% felt it had negatively affected their academic performance in some way.
The original study elaborates on these issues, finding that students in the group who improved their hand hygiene cut their number of missed classes -- by 43%.
“Such illnesses may interfere with class attendance which may in turn affect academic performance,” the study states. “Additionally, college health centers may have to devote significant resources to assisting students who have upper-respiratory illness.”
Much like dorms, the close proximity of airplanes make them a hotbed for germs and bacteria. A USA TODAY article this week detailed how to stay healthy while traveling, which holds may parallels with this study. The focus is, again, surprisingly simple: hand washing.
In light of last winter, when the flu-like norovirustore through college campuses across the nation, Anderson has some advice.
“The most important thing students can do all the time, whether there’s an outbreak or not, is hand washing,” Anderson said. “Frequent and thorough hand washing.”
Michael Crowe is a Fall 2012 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.
This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.