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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of people who wash their hands and surfaces often when preparing food — FS‑07 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About this objective  |  Methodology  |  History

About this objective

Data

Data Source:  Food Safety and Nutrition Survey (FSANS), FDA

National baseline: 68.7 percent of adults aged 18 and over reported washing their hands with soap before starting to prepare food in 2019

National target: 71.4 percent

Numerator
The number of survey respondents who wash their hands with soap all or nearly all of the time before starting to prepare food.
Denominator
Number of survey respondents.
National target-setting method
Minimal statistical significance
National target-setting method details
Minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline.
1
National target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. The standard error was used to calculate a target based on minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline. The Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts viewed this as an achievable target.
National data collection frequency
Periodic

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2019 Food Safety and Nutrition Survey:

Numerator:
Before you begin preparing food, how often do you wash your hands with soap?
  1. All of the time
  2. Most of the time
  3. Some of the time
  4. Rarely

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objective in that FS-5.1 used data from the Food Safety Survey (FSS) to measure consumers who correctly followed the recommendation to properly clean hands, while this objective uses data from the Food Safety and Nutrition Survey (FSANS) to track adults who report washing their hands with soap before starting to prepare food. In 2019, the FDA updated and renamed FSS to FSANS.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2026, the data source was updated from FSS to FSANS. The measure was revised from tracking consumers who correctly followed the recommendation to properly clean hands to track adults who report washing their hands with soap before starting to prepare food. The baseline was revised from 70.0% in 2016 to 68.7% in 2019. The target setting method was revised from percent improvement to minimal statistical significance, and the target was revised from 74.0% to 71.4%.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.