Background: Absenteeism amongst pre-school children is often due to illnesses such as hand, foot, and mouth disease, acute gastroenteritis, cold and fu, which are easily spread amongst them. This is because of weak immunity and lack of knowledge on proper hand hygiene. This quasi-experimental study assessed the efcacy of an intervention consisting of a hand hygiene education programme, along with digital tools in bringing about a change in behaviour and health conditions amongst preschool children in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Methods: A total of 377 school children, male and female, aged 5–6 years old, participated and were assigned to either the intervention or a control group. During the 2 months intervention period, children in the test group were trained on proper hand hygiene practices and techniques with the aid of the interactive android-based tablets. The numbers of absent days of all the children were recorded for 2 months before the intervention and during the intervention. Results: In the test group, there was a 25% increase in the total number of absent days from the pre-intervention period to the intervention period, a much lesser increment observed as compared to that of control group in which the increase was much higher at 89%. Results: showed a signifcant diference (P<0·05) between the absenteeism rates for the test and control group during the intervention period. Conclusion: These results suggest that proper education and intervention increase hand hygiene compliance, which may help decrease school absenteeism due to illness; however, a longer study duration may be necessary to evaluate the beneft further.

Background: Hand hygiene is regarded as the most important measure to prevent spread of infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a prototype application in an electronic device in educating, stimulating and monitoring hand hygiene quality in young children. Method: A pre-school was provided with an interactive hand hygiene application for two months. The device features an online administrator dashboard for data collection and for monitoring the children’s hand washing steps and duration. A good hand washing is defined as hand washing which comprise all of the steps outlined in the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Results: The prototype managed to capture 6882 hand wash performed with an average of 20.85 seconds per hand wash. Washing hands palm to palm was the most frequent (79.9%) step performed, whereas scrubbing fingernails and wrists were the least (56%) steps performed. Conclusions: The device is a good prototype to educate, stimulate and monitor good hand hygiene practices. However, other measures should be undertaken to ensure sustainability of the practices.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) mainly affects children below 􀏐ive years of age. The disease can be prevented by focusing on hand hygiene, disinfection of premises, and cough etiquette. Teachers at pre-school play a vital role in inculcating good hygiene habits among children. This project aimed to determine pre and post-intervention level of knowledge, attitude and practices on HFMD among pre-schools teachers. This study involved pre-school teachers from Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia who were invited to a 5-hour event ”HFMD: Infection Control Workshop”. Questionnaires on knowledge, attitude and practice on HFMD were distributed before and immediately after the event. A total of 112 teachers were recruited. All were female, mostly (90%) from government pre-schools with the mean age of 35.8. Post-intervention total means a score of knowledge increased significantly, notably on the causative agent (23%) and complications of HFMD (26-45%). Mean attitude scores were also significantly increased, especially regarding the cleaning of toys and sharing of utensils. Meanwhile, practice scores were very high during pre-intervention but were insignificantly reduced post-intervention. The intervention improved respondents’ knowledge and attitude significantly. Findings from this study highlighted the need to provide more HFMD program focusing on the basic information of the disease, including mode of transmission and clinical manifestation. We hope that the knowledge gained will be imparted to fellow teachers and children under their care towards minimising the spread of HFMD.