College Students Tend To Be Lax About Washing Their Hands

College students are known for having messy dorm rooms, but a new study reveals they also are pretty lax about washing their hands. Researchers from the University of Findlay looked at the hand washing habits of 224 students there and observed whether their habits correlated with rates of infectious diseases. The students had their hands swabbed at three times– before they washed their hands, after they washed the way they normally did, and then when they washed their hands using a procedure recommended by the CDC. At the beginning, 58 percent of the volunteers had so many microbes on their hands that researchers couldn’t make an accurate count. This was also the case for 67 percent of students who were sick with an infectious disease. Routine hand washing did not improve the germ count on the hands of the sick students, but when they washed their hands according to CDC protocol, there was significant improvement. Study leader Xu Lu recommends that schools, teachers and parents increase their efforts in educating students about proper hand washing, as it could improve their health and reduce medical costs. (Fox) (Image: Flickr.com)