The context and practice of handwashing among new mothers in Serang, Indonesia: a formative research study

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Frequency of handwashing with water only and handwashing with water and soap among new mothers, by type of handwashing occasion (N = 27)

Event	No. events observed	No. (%) events accompanied by handwashing with water only	No. participants handwashing with water only	No. (%) events accompanied by handwashing with soap	No. participants handwashing with soap
Food-related
Before food preparation	38	0	0	2 (5%)	2
Before serving food	51	2 (4%)	2	0	0
Before eating	52	2 (4%)	1	5 (10%)	4
After cooking	34	2 (6%)	1	3 (9%)	2
After eating	39	8 (21%)	7	9 (23%)	9
Defecation-related
After cleaning baby's bottom/dirty napkin	28	7 (25%)	1	8 (32%)	5*
After own defecation	1	1 (100%)	1	0	0
Housework/environment-related
After cleaning (e.g. sweeping, taking out rubbish)	54	4 (7%)	4	10 (19%)	5
After washing dishes	21	5 (24%)	3	2 (7%)	1
After doing laundry	23	8 (30%)	4	2 (9%)	2
After returning home	11	1 (9%)	1	3 (27%)	3
Other
Before breastfeeding	148	1 (0.7%)	1	2 (1.4%)	2*

*wet wipes also used by one woman. Cleaning included sweeping, putting out rubbish, and the use of chemical cleaning products.
The proportion of events accompanied by handwashing (with and without soap) were calculated from behaviours directly observed on video footage (approx. eight hours per participant). The end of an evening meal was not always captured on film at the request of the participant or due to the need to relocate to the next household. For this reason after eating events were observed less frequently than before eating events.
Participants did not consistently wash hands or use soap in response to any event.

ISSN: 1471-2458