To measure hand hygiene behavior, video surveillance had comparable results to in-person observation and also brings certain advantages, according to a study recently published in PLOS One.
Researchers used video surveillance and in-person observation simultaneously and separately at four schools in Kenya over an eight-week period. Video observation yielded similar behavior as in-person observation, the researchers found, but people were more likely to clean their hands when both methods were deployed.
Though in-person and video observation methods had comparable results, video observation has some advantages over in-person observation, such as rapid data processing, lower costs and less time commitment.
Amy Pickering, the study's lead author and a research associate at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Envirionment, said in a news release, "Hopefully, video surveillance will be added to the toolbox for accurately measuring hand hygiene behavior, thus improving monitoring and evaluation of interventions around the world."
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