Visual assessment of the participants’ hands was made by a study nurse,
with special attention to the condition of the skin on the dorsal aspect of their hands and fingers.
At the beginning of each follow-up assessment session,
the study nurse reminded the participants not to divulge which hand-hygiene regimen they were using.
A standardized form was used to rate hands on a scale of 0 to 3 for three variables:
erythema, scaling, and cracking.
A combined visual-assessment score was calculated by adding the values for the three variables (maximum overall score, 9).