Detailing down the most basic activities, we can find out so many mistakes we’re doing in our everyday life. It turns out that just lathering your hands with soap, rubbing them vigorously for 20 seconds and rinsing is not the most effective way to clean them.

So, coming to the context, the experts now say the six-step hand-hygiene technique recommended by the World Health Organization is far more superior than a rival three step process.

Surprisingly, this technique reduced the median bacterial count from 3.28 to 2.58, compared to the three-step method that only reached 2.88, found a recent study.

Observations were noted down by Researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland after 42 physicians and 78 nurses washed their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub after treating patients.

The six-step technique was determined to be microbiologically more effective for reducing the median bacterial count (3.28 to 2.58) compared to the three-step method (3.08 to 2.88).

Despite the time concerns, this six-step method is more efficient, required 25 percent more time to complete (42.50 seconds vs. 35 seconds).

‘One of the interesting incidental findings was that compliance with the six-step technique was lacking,’ said Jacqui Reilly, PhD, lead author of the study and professor of infection prevention and control at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland.

‘Only 65 percent of providers completed the entire hand hygiene process despite participants having instructions on the technique in front of them and having their technique observed, this warrants further investigation for this particular technique and how compliance rates can be improved.’

Meanwhile, experts say that you should use soap if your hands are visibly dirty, but use alcohol-based hand rub if you cannot tell just by looking at them.