Abstract
Involving children in a hand hygiene intervention study The aim and purpose of this paper was to highlight the important role children can play in the research process. Previously, research was conducted “on” children, as opposed to “with” them and this paper aims to show how children shaped the data collection, interventions and ethics of the study. The study formed part of a larger study to investigate whether a hand hygiene intervention could reduce hand hygiene-related diseases. Diarrhoeal diseases are one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 years and can be prevented or reduced through hand hygiene interventions such as proper hand washing at the correct times. An action-based approach was applied to an intervention study, observing children’s actions and reaction to the various aspects of the study. The intervention consisted of teaching children to wash hands using GloGerm® and a “Magic Box.” Data was collected using questionnaires, observations, inspections and logging of hand hygiene-related illnesses and the researcher made field notes of the actions of the participants throughout the study, which are reported in this paper. The findings showed how, by listening to children and observing their actions and reactions to various aspects of the research process, researchers can reflect on these actions and adjust the research process to improve methodologies and ethical considerations. Researchers can relate to the findings in this paper and apply similar reflexive principles to their own research, especially when the research participants are children. These findings can also influence research policies to apply reflexivity to future research protocols and studies.