Individuals in Shared Dormitories who Rarely Wash their Sheets are Associated with Greater Sex-Specific Microbial Changes Compared to Individuals who Wash their Sheets Frequently

Résumé

The skin is the largest organ in the human body whose surface contains a diverse microbial community that contributes to human health by harboring and protecting against pathogens. The composition of the microbial community on the human hand is unique as it has frequent and direct interactions with the surrounding environment. Various factors impact the microbial species present on the dominant hand of an individual, with a primary intrinsic factor being sex and an extrinsic one being hygiene practice. While hygiene practices like hand washing have been shown to decrease overall microbial load, there is a current knowledge gap on how other hygiene practices, such as sheet washing, intersect with sex to impact the skin microbiome. This study therefore explored the impact of sex and the hygiene factor of sheet washing frequency on the microbial composition of hands among individuals residing in shared dormitories. Through microbial diversity and abundance analyses, our findings suggest that sex is a greater driver of hand microbial composition than sheet washing frequency, but that sheet washing frequency still has an effect, as less frequent sheet washing is associated with greater variations in hand microbial composition. Overall, the findings from our study contribute to the growing field of research on how hygiene habits influence the human microbiome in a sex-specific manner, providing a platform for further investigations on the effects of these intersecting factors on health outcomes.