Effect of involuntary motivational factors on hand hygiene by health care providers

Background and Purpose: Hand hygiene is a low-cost، convenient measure recommended to all health care providers to prevent nosocomial infections. Health care staff commonly neglect the importance of hand washing at workplace. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of involuntary motivational factors on hand hygiene compliance byhealth care providers. Methods: This descriptive analytical study was conducted on 153 health care providers. selected via simple random sampling.Data were collected using questionnaires designed based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Data analysis was performed in SPSS, using descriptive and inferential statistics, Pearson’s correlation-coefficient and T-test. Results: In 80.40% of cases, participants reported that they washed their hands after contact with patients or hospital equipment. Moreover, participants had a positive attitude towards the consequences of hand washing (6.11±0.8) and considered this behavior as a norm (6.12±1.2). Correlations observed between most variables of study were significant (P≤0.001). However, controlling factors had a less significant effect on hand hygiene intention compared to other variables, such as outcome evaluation, subjective beliefs and normative beliefs of participants (P≤0.001). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, health care providers have a positive attitude towards hand hygiene compliance. However, due to the impact of involuntary motivational factors on this behavior, it is necessary that medical authorities identify major strategies for behavioral change of health care staff through predicting these underlying factors.