The Use of Electric Toilet Seats with Water Spray Is Efficacious in Maintaining Hand Hygiene in Experimental Model

Abstract

A simulatory experiment was conducted to examine the hand contamination from wiping the buttocks after using or not using an electric toilet seat with water spray. A model of the buttocks was smeared with diarrheal feces artificially made containing Serratia marcescens, and wiped by the participants wearing plastic gloves with 4 sheets of toilet paper using the water spray of electric seat or not. Subsequently, the presence of S. marcescens on the surfaces of the gloves were quantitated. The mean count ± standard deviation of S. marcescens when using the water spray and not using were 0.067±0.249 and 4,275±6,069 colony-forming units (cfu) / glove, respectively. The cfu of S. marcescens was significantly lower when using the water spray (p < 0.00001) prior to wiping the artificial diarrheal feces. This result support the effectiveness of the water spray to prevent defecation-related hand contamination.