In a study of children in schools, setting up a ‘handwashing event’ 4x per day cut sick days in half. Another controlled study on hand sanitizer showed a 20% decrease in sick days.
The short of it is 20% to 50% fewer contagious sicknesses, depending on your current habits (assuming what holds true for children or college students holds true for you).
(assuming what holds true for children or college students holds true for you)
This seems like a pretty big assumption for many adults. Children and college students are likely in much closer quarters with many other people than a lot of office workers.
(I’m a college student, though, and will try to take this advice!)
In a study of children in schools, setting up a ‘handwashing event’ 4x per day cut sick days in half. Another controlled study on hand sanitizer showed a 20% decrease in sick days.
Here’s a replication on sanitizer showing 20% reduction in illness rate for college students.
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys/03/Sept03/090203/75n-0183h-c000075-att-14-vol154.pdf
Here’s one in Pakistan where incidence of Pneumonia and Diarrhea in children were cut in half.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16023513
Here’s one in China where intensive handwashing programs for child schools cut sickness by ~40%. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17556631
The short of it is 20% to 50% fewer contagious sicknesses, depending on your current habits (assuming what holds true for children or college students holds true for you).
This seems like a pretty big assumption for many adults. Children and college students are likely in much closer quarters with many other people than a lot of office workers.
(I’m a college student, though, and will try to take this advice!)