Effectiveness of Handwashing in COVID-19 Prevention - Free Paper Sample

Introduction

The application of critical appraisal in the medical field is extremely relevant to delineate useful inventions from the harmful ones. It involves a careful and systematic exploration of research articles to critic their reliability, utility, and relevance in a particular context (Williams, 2020). Research quality is concerned with the reflection of good composure and internal validity or free from biasedness (Williams, 2020). Consequently, the research reviewing must be done, especially in selecting performance, discovery, and attrition, where biasedness usually befalls; thus, data processing and analysis must be executed from data collection, collation, to information interpretation (Williams, 2020).

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COVID-19, a new viral strain most frequently transmitted via respiratory droplets from an infected person and through direct and indirect contact of contaminated surfaces, has posed a great demand for the current healthcare system and the economy (Hopman, 2020). According to the World Health Organization (2020) report on August 18, 2020, over 21 million confirmed cases of the pandemic and 771,635 succumbed to the virus. Several studies on the preventive measures to curb the spread of this global pandemic have been conducted. One of the recommended ways to control the coronavirus's spread was handwashing, therefore investigating its efficiency would ultimately provide an insight to the healthcare practitioners.

In this paper, two research articles have been critically appraised on the effectiveness of handwashing compared to sanitizers in controlling the spread of COVID-19. The first is "COVID-19 pandemic: Prevention and protection measures to be adopted at the workplace." (Cirrincione et al., 2020) while the other is "A review of current interventions for COVID-19 prevention" (Pradhan et al., 2020). Both articles are in pursuit of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the world population through handwashing and personal protective equipment (PPE).

The article by Cirrincione et al. (2020) presents proper handwashing with soap and water as an essential measure to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and should be done for at least 40-60 seconds; however, hand disinfectants with 62 – 71 percent alcohol-based can be used in the absence of water and soap. The other study by Pradhan et al. (2020) involved the routine usage of an effective detergent for handwashing, sanitizers, and PPE as the foundation of major protection against the viral infection. Although Pradhan et al. (2020) recommended using hand sanitizers, its biocidal potentiality or effectiveness relies on alcoholic strength. Therefore, these appraised articles provide a credible answer to PICOT question that is; In the world population, how effective is handwashing compared to the use of sanitizers in controlling the spread of COVID-19 by both having handwashing as the Interventions, hand sanitizers as the control, and controlling the spread of coronavirus as the outcome.

The Research Methods Used in the Appraised Articles

The two studies employed quantitative research designs with similar methodology, systematic reviews. Systematic reviews, the gold standard, have been developed in medical science to produce transparent, systematic, and reproducible research findings (Snyder, 2019). Systematic reviews can be described as a research method to identify and critically evaluate relevant research, as well as data collection and analysis (Snyder, 2019). The reviews aim at answering a particular research hypothesis or question by identifying all possible evidence that fits the pre-determined inclusion criteria.

The research by Cirrincione et al. (2020) explored and analyzed guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the pandemic affected countries. Besides, the prevention and control procedures recommended for other pathogen-causing epidemics belonging to the coronaviruses or inhibiting similar transmission mechanisms were analyzed. While the study by Pradhan et al. (2020) conducted a retrospective analysis comparing the previous and current pandemic case studies of the WHO. These case studies were examined to reveal studies with reliable and effective measures for reducing the COVID-19 spread.

Advantage and Limitation of Systematic Reviews

According to Snyder (2019), biasedness can be minimized when using systematic and explicit methods during articles review for available evidence, hence providing consistent findings used for drawing important inferences and making critical decisions. They also deliver a vibrant and comprehensive summary of the available evidence in a specified context and identify research gaps in the current understanding. Nevertheless, findings from different studies can be hard to combine because the scholars might have done their investigation in different ways (Snyder, 2019). Similarly, comparing the findings of two or more studies may be hard due to the difference in the original study length, the number of participants, and other contributing factors.

Results of the Study

According to Cirrincione et al. (2020), evidence-based outcomes revealed that viruses are efficiently inactivated by extraordinary cleaning and sanitization procedures. These include using disinfectants based on 0.1–0.5 percent sodium hypochlorite, 62–71 percent ethanol-based, or 0.5 percent hydrogen peroxide. Therefore, the adoption of extraordinary cleaning, sanitization measures using the suitable disinfectants, paying attention to any organic residues’ removal, and intensified frequency with which these activities, would curb the spread of the virus.

The retrospective analysis by Pradhan et al. (2020) provided proof that anticipates the decisive roles of protective procedures in regulating the 2013 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The Infection prevention and control (IPC), WHO guideline, is a fact-based method for preventing health workers and patients from being affected by preventable infections. The analysis disclosed that upholding efficacious IPC reduced healthcare-associated infections by over 30 percent. Although using disinfectants for surface cleaning, detergents, hand sanitizers, and PPE are recommended for controlling the spread of the virus, their defensive efficiency fully depends on the disinfectants’ strength and alcohol content sanitizers, and the material used for PPE manufacturing. Hence, preventive care is an option that would better control its spread.

These research results would imply that observing the recommended PPE through instant and thorough handwashing would significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19 (Hopman, 2020). As health practitioners, it is necessary to encourage the patients and sensitize the general public to follow these guidelines to curb the spread of infectious diseases.

The Anticipated Outcomes

The PICOT question for this paper is: In the world population, how effective is handwashing compared to the use of sanitizers in controlling the spread of COVID-19? The anticipated outcome of this PICOT question is to highlight proper handwashing as the most effective method in controlling the spread of coronavirus. Since handwashing is part of extraordinary cleaning as presented by Cirrincione et al. (2020) and a key technique under IPC as recorded in the article by Pradhan et al. (2020), the articles' outcomes are in line with the PICOT outcomes.

Conclusion

The current unavailability of an approved vaccine and the effective antiviral drug has worsened the situation. As a result, implementing effective preventive measures is the most appropriate option to counteract coronaviruses. Similarly, critical assessment of evidence-based research papers on effective ways to control the spread of COVID-19 will enable health practitioners to secure safer and better healthcare. Finally, from the assessed articles, it can be regarded that observing proper hand hygiene through instant and thorough handwashing with water and soap would significantly reduce the spread of coronavirus.

References

Cirrincione, L., Plescia, F., Ledda, C., Rapisarda, V., Martorana, D., Moldovan, R., ... & Cannizzaro, E. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic: Prevention and protection measures to be adopted at the workplace. Sustainability, 12(9), 3603.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093603

Hopman, J., Allegranzi, B., & Mehtar, S. (2020). Managing COVID-19 in low-and middle-income countries. Jama, 323(16), 1549-1550.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32176764/

Pradhan, D., Biswasroy, P., Ghosh, G., & Rath, G. (2020). A review of current interventions for COVID-19 prevention. Archives of medical research.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.04.020

Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319304564

Williams, V., Boylan, A. M., & Nunan, D. (2020). Critical appraisal of qualitative research: necessity, partialities and the issue of bias. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 25(1), 9-11.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30862711/

World Health Organization. (2020, August 18). Coronavirus disease 2019 (‎COVID-19)‎: situation report, 88. World Health Organization.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports.