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 Results All participants in the study had an average age of 25.46±5.621, including 56% males and 44% females. Of the total sample of 259 cases, 72.6% showed growth of one or more bacteria. . There was no correlation between the number of times mobile phones were cleaned and the number of bacteria present on their surfaces (p-value > 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.