Study shows college students ignore hygiene tips

Even in the grip of an H1N1 pan demic, the majority of college students ignore hygiene tips, according to a study by researchers at North Carolina State University and Kansas State University.

Despite the vast number of instructions plastered around most college campuses, the large amount of hand sanitizer stations and the attempts to appeal to the hip, college-kid audience, researchers are inclined to believe that students don't listen to tips about hygienic safety.

The study was conducted at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, during a norovirus outbreak in 2006. The results were published in September's issue of the Journal of Environmental Health.

The virus that struck Guelph is highly contagious and causes diarrhea and vomiting. The researchers placed a bottle of hand-sanitizing gel at the entrance of a cafeteria and watched from a discreet distance. Campus officials were under the impression that many students were using the sanitizer, but the researchers found that only 17 percent actually did.

Later, when asked in a poll, 83 percent of students said they routinely practiced all the recommended hand-hygiene procedures during the outbreak.

"Even in the midst of a large norovirus outbreak in which there was all this media attention and things saying ‘Wash your damn hands,' people still didn't take the advice," said Douglas Powell, one of the co-authors of the study and an associate professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at Kansas State University.

"As John Stewart said on ‘Saturday Night Live' in 2002, ‘You think "Employees Must Wash Hands" is keeping the piss out of your happy meals. It's not.'"

The scientific jargon and polite euphemisms in hygienic safety ads are ineffective, said Powell.

"It's boring," he said. "‘Wash your damn hands, and this is why,' is much better. Whether or not people actually do it is their choice, but then you can say, ‘At least I got their attention.'"

At universities, Powell said, hygiene ads "need to be creative and shocking and surprising to get your attention."

Surprisingly, college kids aren't the only ones who ignore hygiene advice, Powell explained.

"It's not college kids, it's everyone," he said. "Another study in New Zealand found 18 percent compliance, we found 17 percent."

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, students are more aware of hygiene rules with the recent breakout of H1N1, said Alice Henneman, a UNL extension educator.

"This has really gotten a lot of airplay," she said, "and (now) people say, ‘Maybe this isn't just a stomach ache.'"

jacegatzemeyer@dailynebraskan.com