Find a broad range of up to date information on home and everyday life hygiene including scientific reviews, guidelines, training resources and factsheets etc here. There are materials produced by IFH and materials from other respected sources.
It seems clear that, getting people to change hygiene behaviour depends not only on promoting hygiene practice but also changing public understanding of hygiene and restoring their confidence in hygiene.
We need the public to believe that infection doesn’t “happen by accident or misfortune” - it is preventable in many cases. If we believe we have no control over whether we get an infection, we will not take measures to control it. We also need to persuade people of the direct benefits of hygiene to them as individuals e.g. avoiding loss of income, costs of childcare, disruption of family leisure activities, etc. In the last year, IFH has been working to find out more about consumers' understanding of hygiene and hygiene issues.
RSPH and IFH call for a clean-up of public understanding and attitudes to hygiene
This paper, published in Perspectives in Public health Nov 2019 describes the results of consumer polling and other studies to find out more about consumers understanding of hygiene and hygiene-related issues.
Are we too clean? Restoring public understanding of hygiene is key to behaviour change
At the 3rd biannual Hygiene Forum hosted By NVZ in October 2019 in Netherlands, Professor Sally Bloomfield and Professor Nina Veflen hosted a workshop examining aspects of consumer understanding of hygiene, and how this affects their hygiene behaviour.