{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,20]],"date-time":"2025-09-20T04:33:33Z","timestamp":1758342813956,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]],"date-time":"2025-09-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758240000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Wuhan Science Foundation for Youths","award":["WG21Q03"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["WG21Q03"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Hand hygiene (HH) is crucial for preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), with compliance notably increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether this adherence can be sustained remains uncertain. We sought to assess changes in HH compliance following the pandemic and explore its correlation with HAIs.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A longitudinal study was launched to assess HH compliance and HAIs across two phases. Phase 1 spanned from October 2021 to January 2023, a period of normalized prevention and control of COVID-19, while phase 2 extended from February 2023 to July 2024, following the downgrade in the management of COVID-19. Observers recorded HH practices. HAIs were identified through using semi-automated, continuous surveillance software. Pearson correlation coefficient (<jats:italic><jats:italic>rs<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic>) was used to evaluate the relationship between HAIs and HH.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A total of 2,233 HH opportunities were observed with 966 during Phase 1 and 1,267 in Phase 2. Compliance with HH significantly declined from 90.27% (95% CI: 85.34% to 95.4%) in Phase 1 to 82.56% (95% CI: 80.35% to 84.61%) in Phase 2 (<jats:italic><jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009<\/jats:italic>&lt;\u20090.001). Concurrently, the incidence of HAI rose notably from 16.79\u2030 (95% CI: 16.20\u2030 to 17.39\u2030) to 18.71\u2030 (95% CI: 18.20\u2030 to 19.24\u2030) (<jats:italic><jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic>\u2009&lt;\u20090.001). However, despite these concurrent trends, monthly analysis found no statistically significant correlation between HH compliance and HAI incidence (<jats:italic><jats:italic>rs<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u2009\u22120.296; <jats:italic><jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.0897).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>As the pandemic threat waned, maintaining high HH compliance became challenging, indicating it\u2019s time to implement additional strategies. Moreover, the correlation between HH and HAI requires further study to uncover.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0332634","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]],"date-time":"2025-09-19T20:33:07Z","timestamp":1758313987000},"page":"e0332634","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Hand hygiene after the COVID-19 pandemic: Is it still at a high level?"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Jinqi","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yaofei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Neng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yifen","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Min","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-3205-8074","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Xiaoman","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0332634.ref001","first-page":"1","article-title":"Healthcare Personnel Hand Hygiene Compliance: Are We There Yet?","volume":"26","author":"J Armstrong-Novak","year":"2023","journal-title":"Curr Infect Dis Rep"},{"key":"pone.0332634.ref002","unstructured":"World Health Organization. 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