Microbial contamination of mobile phone and its hygiene practices by medical students and doctors in a tertiary care hospital:A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: The incidence of hospital-acquired infections is on the rise globally. Mobile phones, used by healthcare workers, can be significant sources for harboring bacteria responsible forHAIs in health care setups. Objective: To assess the microbial contamination of mobile phones and the hygiene practices adopted by medical students and doctors in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Lahore General Hospital in March 2019. The samples included 259 mobile phones of medical students and doctors in various cadres in different clinical departments. The participants were inquired about their beliefs and practices about mobile phone cleaning and the cleaning agents used. The Pearson Chi-Square test was used for analyzing the data. The statistical significance level was set at p 0.05). Most mobile phones (39.8%) were contaminated with one type of microbe, while 32.8% had more than one organism growing on them. Conclusion: Most of the mobile phones owned by the medical students and doctors were contaminated with bacterial pathogens. Despite the doctors’ claim of cleaning their gadgets, there was presence of microbes on them.

Keywords

• Mobile phones
• Microbial contamination
• Bacterial transmission
• Hygiene practices
• Doctors and medical students
• Healthcare environment