Students do handwashing exercise at Jingtai Primary Schoolin Guangzhou, southeast China's Guangdong Province, on Oct. 15, 2009, the Global Handwashing Day. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

Few wash their hands after using toilet, study reveals

   BEIJING, October 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Less than one third of men and two thirds of women wash their hands with soap after going to the toilet, a British study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has revealed.

   And according to scientists many may only use soap if shamed into thinking they are being watched. When prompted by an electronic message flashing up on a board asking, "Is the person next to you washing with soap?" around 12 percent more men and 11 percent more women used soap.

 The study's finding come as health authorities around the world step up efforts to persuade people to be more hygienic and wash their hands properly to help slow the spread of A/H1N1, more commonly known as swine flu. "Handwashing with soap has been ranked the most cost-effective intervention for the worldwide control of disease," the study's authors wrote. "It could save more than a million lives a year from diarrhoeal diseases, and prevent respiratory infections -- the biggest causes of child mortality in developing countries."

    Researchers studied the behavior of a quarter of a million people using toilets at motorway service stations across Britain over 32 days. Without reminders, only 32 percent of men and 64 percent of women used soap. But when electronic messages, ranging from "Water doesn't kill germs, soap does" to "Don't be a dirty soap dodger," were flashed onto screens at the entrance of the toilets people's behavior changed.

Students wash their hands at Jingtai Primary School in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, on Oct. 15, 2009, the Global Handwashing Day. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

Students do handwashing exercise at Jingtai Primary School in Guangzhou, southeast China's Guangdong Province, on Oct. 15, 2009, the Global Handwashing Day. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)