Evaluation of hygiene habits: cross-sectional study.

Introduction: It is well known that adequate hygiene is important for health. Even though this topic has drawn the attention of the media, little or no scientific investigation has been done.

Methods: We performed a comparative questionnaire-based cross-sectional study in three groups: patients attending a dermatology outpatient clinic, patients attending an internal medicine consultation, and community members.

Results: We analyzed a total of 446 questionnaires (249 from dermatology patients, 98 from internal medicine patients, and 99 from the community group). The three groups did not differ statistically in sex and age (p=0.070). The patients from the dermatology department had a higher education level. The number of weekly baths did not differ among the three groups (p=0.417). Hair hygiene did not differ between the three groups. The dermatology and internal medicine groups washed their hands more frequently than the community group (p=0.028).

Conclusions: Comparing our results to the limited data available, we find that the population surveyed has better hygiene habits than those previously reported. We believe that hygiene habits should be discussed during office visits.