When it comes to washing your hands, there’s a pretty big gender divide, study finds

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, handwashing is one of the steps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends to prevent getting sick.

The CDC recommends washing your hands for 15 to 20 seconds with soap and water.

But studies have shown men and women aren’t equally good at washing hands.

A Michigan State University study published in 2013 found only 5% of people washed their hands “long enough to kill germs that can cause infections.” The study is based on 3,749 people in public restrooms.

That study also found 15% of men didn’t wash their hands, compared to 7% of women. Only half of men used soap compared to 78 percent of women, according to that study.

A CDC fact sheet cites a study from 2009 that found “only 31% of men and 65% of women washed their hands.”

A 2010 study by the American Cleaning Institute and the American Microbiology Society said men are less likely than women to wash hands after handling food, petting an animal and coughing or sneezing, according to The New York Times.

A 2016 Los Alamos National Laboratory paper examined why some people adopt protective behaviors.

“Women are more likely — about 50 percent more likely — than men to practice non-pharmaceutical behaviors, things like hand washing, face mask use and avoiding crowds,” Kelly Moran, one of the authors of the study, told The New York Times.

This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 2:49 PM with the headline "When it comes to washing your hands, there’s a pretty big gender divide, study finds."