Effectiveness of body wipes as an adjunct to reducing skin infections in high school wrestlers.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To compare soap-and-water body wipes and 70% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) body wipes to a CONTROL (no treatment) in reducing skin infections in high school wrestlers competing in weekend tournaments.

DESIGN:

Repeated measures study evaluating a soap-and-water body wipe, a 70% IPA body wipe, and no-treatment CONTROL during 2 weekend tournaments.

SETTING:

High school wrestling tournaments in Minneapolis-St Paul and surrounding communities of Minnesota.

INTERVENTION:

Each team was randomly assigned to use either wipe or serve as CONTROL during each tournament.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Presence of skin infections that developed the following week after a weekend tournament.

RESULTS:

A total of 151 athletes competed in a total of 474 individual matches. Thirteen athletes tested positive afterward for skin infections. The odds of infection for the tested group compared with the CONTROL group were 0.089 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01-0.75; P = 0.026] for the soap-and-water group and 0.44 (95% CI, 0.11-1.69; P = 0.23) for 70% IPA group.

CONCLUSIONS:

Soap-and-water wipes seem to be more effective in reducing skin infections compared with the no-treatment group.

• Authors: B J Anderson
• Journal: Clinical journal of sport medicine : official journal of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine (Clin J Sport Med) Vol. 22 Issue 5 Pg. 424-9 (Sep 2012) ISSN: 1536-3724 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22695403 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial)

Chemical References

• Soaps
• 2-Propanol

Topics

• 2-Propanol (administration & dosage)
• Adolescent
• Disinfection (methods)
• Humans
• Male
• Minnesota (epidemiology)
• Pilot Projects
• Skin Diseases, Infectious (epidemiology, prevention & control)
• Soaps (administration & dosage)
• Wrestling (statistics & numerical data)