Abstract
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this research was to determine, via an on-line survey, whether the general public in Canada, is aware of why certain ingredients, such as alcohol content is important to prevent transmission of disease-causing pathogens. The literature demonstrates the importance of hand sanitizers, the efficacy between different types of sand sanitizers, ingredient lists, and the public's knowledge regarding the effectiveness of hand sanitizers. METHODS: The standard methods of this study were an online survey using SurveyMonkey. The survey was distributed online by email and across some social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram. The survey consisted of 18 questions in three parts: demographic information, ingredient knowledge, and hand sanitizer knowledge. The aim of the survey was to determine the level of the public's knowledge on hand sanitizer regarding alcohol content and product ingredients. RESULTS: There were 174 respondents who completed the survey, 10 of whom were excluded from the data as per exclusion and inclusion criteria, therefore, the number of analyzable respondents was 164 (N=164). Questions were asked in four areas; (i) knowledge of the correct range of alcohol required for an alcohol-based hand sanitizer(ABHS), (ii) frequency of checking alcohol content in ABHS (iii) whether ABHS ingredient list is checked, (iv) level of understanding of alcohol effectiveness of ABHS. Overall, knowledge regarding the importance of alcohol in ABHS was fair: 63% of respondents knew the correct range of alcohol required in hand sanitizers, 59% almost always checked alcohol content of ABHS, 38% almost always check ABHS ingredients list, and 50% of respondents felt they had a strong understanding of the alcohol effectiveness in ABHS. In order to determine if specific groups were more or less knowledgeable, analyses were conducted using different demographic variables. No statistically significant results emerged: frequency of checking alcohol content in hand sanitizer by age group(P = 0.4738), knowledge of correct alcohol content required to kill pathogens and level of education (P = 0.7686),understanding alcohol effectiveness and occupation (P = 0.6657), and checking ingredients on hand sanitizer labels and gender (P = 0.4957). CONCLUSIONS: This small survey study (N=164) showed that Canadians, regardless of gender, age, education, and occupation, were fairly knowledgeable about the appropriate alcohol content required for hand sanitizers as well as reading hand sanitizer ingredients more often than not. However, none of the analyzed hypotheses showed statistically significant associations. As such, initiatives in health promotion and education about hand sanitizers must continue but should not be tailored to specific groups.