Developing better understanding of hygiene is key to developing hygiene behaviour change in home and everyday life settings.

IF 3.5 4区 医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Perspectives in Public Health Pub Date : 2024-11-01 Epub Date: 2023-04-22 DOI:10.1177/17579139231163734
S Bloomfield, L Ackerley
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aims: Polling indicates the public has fairly good knowledge of times when hygiene is needed in their homes and everyday life in public spaces, but limited understanding of hygiene risk; this results in omitting some key behaviours and incorrectly applying untargeted behaviours. This poll explores how the public responded to government advice, and information from other sources, to address a specific disease threat - that is, COVID-19 infection.

Methods: An online poll was developed, and data were collected from 1730 respondents in England aged 18 and above.

Results: Data suggest that the UK public has a high level of concern about the importance of hygiene to prevent spread of COVID-19. They had good recall of advice given during the pandemic and were able to identify routes of infection transmission. When asked to identify key times for handwashing, most people (86%-90%) identified 'after coughing, sneezing etc., before eating food with fingers, after touching contact surfaces and when returning home', but a similar number also identified using the toilet, food handling and pet handling, despite the fact that government advice does not identify these as risk actions for COVID-19. This suggests they were unable to use their knowledge of how the virus spreads to make informed decisions about when to practice hygiene. Despite government guidance, public practices are still influenced by a conviction that deep cleaning, including non-targeted disinfectant usage on environmental surfaces, gives added protection, leading them to practise additional cleaning and disinfection in situations where there is little benefit.

Conclusions: New insights from public polling, together with the nine moments Targeted Hygiene approach, offer a more robust communications approach to enable the public to make cognitive links between when, where, how and why to practise good hygiene, and in doing so, promote more effective and sustainable behaviours.

发展对卫生的更好理解是在家庭和日常生活环境中促进卫生行为改变的关键。
目的:民意调查显示,公众对在家中和公共场所的日常生活中需要卫生的时间有相当好的了解,但对卫生风险的了解有限;这将导致忽略一些关键行为并错误地应用非目标行为。这项民意调查探讨了公众如何回应政府建议和其他来源的信息,以应对特定的疾病威胁,即COVID-19感染。方法:开展在线调查,收集英国18岁及以上1730名受访者的数据。结果:数据显示,英国公众高度关注卫生对预防COVID-19传播的重要性。他们清楚地记得大流行期间给予的建议,并能够确定感染传播途径。当被要求确定洗手的关键时间时,大多数人(86%-90%)认为是“咳嗽、打喷嚏等后、用手指吃东西前、接触接触表面后和回家时”,但也有类似比例的人认为是在上厕所、处理食物和处理宠物时洗手,尽管政府的建议并未将这些行为确定为COVID-19的风险行为。这表明他们无法利用他们对病毒如何传播的知识来就何时采取卫生措施做出明智的决定。尽管有政府的指导,但公众的做法仍然受到一种信念的影响,即深度清洁,包括在环境表面使用非针对性消毒剂,可以提供额外的保护,导致他们在几乎没有好处的情况下进行额外的清洁和消毒。结论:来自公众民意调查的新见解,以及“九个时刻目标卫生”方法,提供了一种更有力的沟通方法,使公众能够在何时、何地、如何以及为什么要养成良好卫生习惯之间建立认知联系,并在此过程中促进更有效和可持续的行为。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Perspectives in Public Health
Perspectives in Public Health PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-
CiteScore
4.50
自引率
1.70%
发文量
74
期刊介绍: Perspectives in Public Health is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed journal. It is practice orientated and features current topics and opinions; news and views on current health issues; case studies; book reviews; letters to the Editor; as well as updates on the Society"s work. The journal also commissions articles for themed issues and publishes original peer-reviewed articles. Perspectives in Public Health"s primary aim is to be an invaluable resource for the Society"s members, who are health-promoting professionals from many disciplines, including environmental health, health protection, health and safety, food safety and nutrition, building and engineering, primary care, academia and government.
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