Public not caught clean-handed

A study of public hand hygiene practices has found New Zealanders to be at "suboptimal" levels.

The study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, surveyed hand-washing in washrooms of shopping malls located in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

Out of 1,200 subjects, it was found that the overall frequency of hand-washing was 86.7%, with significant gender differences also identified - males had a frequency of 81%; females 92.4%.