It is possible that the degree of skin irritation and dryness observed could have been different if other products had been used.
Also, the skin irritation and dryness associated with the unmedicat soap product available in the hospital may have been less dramatic if nurses had been allowed to apply hand lotion between episodes of hand washing.
Because the Corneometer device used for measuring electrical capacitance of the skin yielded digital readouts, the objective measurements of epidermal water content are unlikely to be biased.
All three methods used to assess the condition of nurses’ hands yielded concordant results, namely, that nurses experienced greater skin dryness and irritation when using soap and water than when using the alcoholic hand gel.