ArticleAnnals of translational medicine2021
Associations of hand washing frequency with the incidence of illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Annals of translational medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The relevance of oral exposure in the workplace: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Levels of handwashing and vaccine uptake in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania to prevent and control COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness of tailored injury and illness prevention and management to reduce the prevalence and severity of health problems in adapted sports: a randomised controlled trial.British journal of sports medicine · 2025Trial
- Impact of hand hygiene on infection-related symptoms in school-aged children: a cross-sectional study on the moderating effect of depression.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Strategies for Preventing Nosocomial Influenza in Acute-Care Hospitals: A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- Product formulation and rubbing time impact the inactivation of enveloped and non-enveloped virus surrogates by foam-based hand sanitizers.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- ML-Based Edge Node for Monitoring Peoples' Frailty Status.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Hand hygiene compliance in a Brazilian COVID-19 unit: the impact of moments and contact precautions.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2024Observational
- Individual and community-level factors of availability of observed water, soap, and other cleansing agents for hand washing practice in Ethiopia: a multilevel mixed-effects analysis of the 2021 performance monitoring for action Ethiopia.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Collective Behaviours: Mediation Mechanisms Underlying the Influence of Descriptive and Injunctive Norms.International review of social psychology · 2023Article
- Assessing Access to WASH in Urban Schools during COVID-19 in Kazakhstan: Case Study of Central Kazakhstan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Mental Representations of Sickness Positively Relate to Adaptive Health Behaviors.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
- Hygiene Behavior and COVID-19 Pandemic: Opportunities of COVID-19-Imposed Changes in Hygiene Behavior.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHand hygiene is one of the ways to prevent the spread of diseases. Our aim was to explore the relationship between hand washing frequency and the impact on disease, and give recommendations on the number of times to wash hands.
methodsWe searched seven electronic databases from their inception to April 11, 2020, and reference lists of related reviews for all studies on hand washing frequency and disease prevention. The Review Manager 5.3. software was used to conduct a meta-analysis. We assessed the risk of bias of included studies, and quality of evidence of the main findings.
resultsA total of eight studies were included. The results of the meta-analysis showed that there was no statistical significance between the effect of disease prevention and washing more than 4 times/day compared to not [odds ratio (OR) =0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37 to 1.01]. The results of a case-control study showed that compared with hand washing ≤4 times/day, hand washing 5-10 times/day (OR =0.75, 95% CI: 0.63 to 0.91) and hand washing >10 times/day (OR =0.65, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.80) could reduce the risk of disease infection. There was no statistical significance advantage to hand washing more than 10 times/day compared to 5-10 times/day (OR =0.86, 95% CI: 0.70 to 1.06). Comparing hand washing ≤10 times/day with hand washing >10 times/day, increased hand washing was a protective factor against infection (OR =0.59, 95% CI: 0.36 to 0.97).
conclusionsThe more frequently hands were washed, the lower risk of disease. So far however, there is no high-quality evidence indicating the best range of hand washing frequency for disease prevention.
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