Social and cultural dimensions of hygiene in Cambodian health care facilities

We conducted qualitative surveys in various public and private health facilities in Phnom Penh, the capital city and in provinces. We observed and interviewed 319 participants, health care workers and patients, regarding hygiene practices and social relationships amongst the health care staff and with patients. We also examined the local perceptions of hygiene, their impact on the relationships between the health care staff and patients, and perceptions of transmission risks. Data collection stem from face to face semi-structured and open-ended interviews and focus group discussions with various health care staffs (i.e. cleaners, nurses, midwives and medical doctors) and with patients who attended the study health facilities.Overall responses and observations indicated that hygiene practices were burdened by the lack of adequate materials and equipements. In addition, many other factors were identified to influence and distort hygiene practices which include (1) informal and formal social rapports in hospitals, (2) major infection control roles played by the cleaners in absence of professional acknowledgment. Moreover, hygiene practices are commonly seen as an unessential matter to be devoted to low-ranking staff.Our anthropological findings illustrate the importance of comprehensive understanding of hygiene practices; they need to be considered when designing interventions to improve infection control practices in a Cambodian medical setting.The frequency of bloodborne pathogens transmission in health settings has been considered to be high in developing countries [1]. Despite many studies and surveys on infection control and transmission risks in medical settings, the underlying social and cultural logics contributing to this transmission are not well documented [2,3]. Besides epidemiological aspects, hospital hygiene is shaped by medical norms and social-cultural representations, and hygiene practices always take place within social relations [4-9].In Cambodia, H