Visual assessments made by the study nurse revealed that skin dryness,
irritation,
and cracking increased substantially during the 2-week period of soapand- water hand washing
(mean baseline score, 0.591.21; mean final score, 1.211.52; P=.05; Figure 2).
In contrast, the skin condition of participants’ hands at the beginning and at the end of the 2 weeks of using the alcoholic– hand-gel regimen was the same
(mean baseline score, 0.550.95; mean final score, 0.551.35).
The average final visual-assessment score with soap-and-water hand washing (1.21) was significantly worse than the average final score with the alcoholic–hand-gel regimen (0.55; P=.046).