The Determinants of Reported Personal and Household Hygiene Behaviour: A Multi-Country Study

Abstract

A substantial proportion of the total infectious disease burden world-wide is due to person-to-person spread of pathogens within households. A questionnaire-based survey on the determinants of hand-washing with soap and cleaning of household surfaces was conducted in at least 1000 households in each of twelve countries across the world (N = 12,239). A structural equation model of hygiene behaviour and its consequences derived from theory was then estimated on this dataset for both behaviours, using a maximum likelihood procedure. The analysis showed that the frequency of handwashing with soap is significantly related to how automatically it is performed, and whether or not someone is busy, or tired. Surface cleaning was strongly linked to possessing a cleaning routine, the perception that one is living in a dirty environment and that others are doing the behaviour, whether one has a strong sense of contamination, as well as a felt need to keep one’s surroundings tidy. Being concerned with good manners is also linked to the performance of both behaviours. This study is the first to identify the role of manners, orderliness and routine on hygiene behaviours globally. Such findings should prove helpful in designing programs to improve domestic hygiene practices.

Knowledge, Socio-cognitive Perceptions and the Practice of Hand Hygiene and Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study of UK University Students

“…Additional predisposing factors were identi ed from the literature. Thus, hand hygiene questions included time factors and habit/automaticity, but not social support [18], while social distancing questions covered all 4 motivational factors from I-Change (advantages, disadvantages, social support, self-e cacy), but also perception of trust in government interventions [33]. Risk perception items and knowledge of the effectiveness of protective behaviours also re ect the work of Rubin [34] for designing a questionnaire on perceptions and behaviour during an in uenza pandemic.…”

“…More recently, Kupfer [17], linked hand hygiene behaviour determinants to the Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour, although this was in a non-pandemic environment. Aunger [18] developed a Behaviour Determination Model to explain the determinants of handwashing more generally, while Protection Motivation Theory has now been used for a study of preventative behaviours in healthcare workers in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic [19]. Yet determinants identi ed as linking to the protective behaviours of interest, whether during a pandemic or more generally, and whether under a theoretical framework or outside, vary greatly, depending on the population.…”

“…In university students, in previous pandemics, determinants have included risk perception (whether perceived severity, susceptibility, or concern/anxiety about the possibility of contracting the infection [20][21][22][23][24]), gender [20][21][22]24], perceived effectiveness of the measures [22,25], course studied [20], country of birth [24] and self-e cacy and social norms [25]. Studies of the general population or outside pandemics add in knowledge, attitude and age [26], trust [27], ethnicity [28], habit and time factors [18]. Although use of a theoretical framework is key, the scale of the impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented compared to previous pandemics in the last century and so a wide pool of potential determinants was considered for the current study based on literature, from theory or empirical studies.…”

“…The Integrated-Change (I-Change) model integrates a range of socio-cognitive theories to explain behavioural changes by looking at pre-motivational factors such as knowledge and risk perception, as well as motivational factors such as attitude, social norms and self-e cacy [29]. It also includes predisposing factors which can represent a wide range of behavioural, psychological, biological and environmental factors, and hence can provided a comprehensive framework for investigating a wide variety of potential determinants, including habit, time factors [18] and trust [30]. Therefore, the current study used I-Change as a theoretical framework.…”

Reliability and validity of the Antioch Child Hygiene Scale: A scale development study

“…The term hygiene encompasses different measures and practices, including: Sanitary practices, preventive medicine and prevention of illness, practice, study and maintenance of health. It is usually divided into the following fields: Personal hygiene, domestic hygiene, food hygiene, and industrial hygiene (1). Personal hygiene is the practice of self-care, including bathing and grooming.…”