1,721,042 research outputs found

    Implications of the COVID-19 trajectory for the evaluation of hand hygiene interventions: Secondary analysis of the Soapp trial.

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    Hand hygiene behavior is crucial to counter the spread of infectious diseases. However, its adoption during the early stages of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic showed temporal fluctuations associated with the trajectory of the pandemic (e.g. new COVID-19 infections). Such associations can confound conclusions about the effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting hand hygiene during a pandemic. In this study, we performed a secondary analysis of a dataset from the optimization phase of Soapp, an app to promote hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a longitudinal study design to test whether the associations between the pandemic trajectory and hand hygiene behavior were still present one year after the outbreak (primary outcome) and whether they impacted conclusions about the effectiveness of Soapp (secondary outcome). Participants (N = 216) were randomized to different versions of Soapp and used an electronic diary to self-report their hand hygiene behavior multiple times during the study. We considered the following indicators of the COVID-19 pandemic from the country of Switzerland in the period between March and August 2021: total cases/deaths, increases in recent new cases/deaths, new cases/deaths, and number of administered doses of vaccine. Data were analyzed using a multilevel approach. Results suggested that there were no significant associations between hand hygiene and the indicators of the pandemic trajectory. However, models including total cases/deaths impacted the conclusions about Soapp's effectiveness. Implications from this study are that the development and evaluation of hand hygiene interventions during a pandemic context should account for the trajectory indicators to maximize their effectiveness and control for confounding effects

    Social-cognitive factors mediating intervention effects on handwashing: a longitudinal study

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    Handwashing with soap effectively prevents diarrhoea, a leading cause of death in infants. Theory-based interventions are expected to promote handwashing more successfully than standard approaches. The present article investigates the underlying change processes of theory-based handwashing interventions. A nonrandomised field study compared a standard approach to two theory-based interventions that were tailored to the target population, the inhabitants of four villages in southern Ethiopia (N = 408). Data were collected before and after interventions by structured interviews and analysed by mediation analysis. In comparison to the standard approach (i.e., education only), education with public commitment and reminder was slightly more effective in changing social-cognitive factors and handwashing. Education with an infrastructure promotion and reminder was most effective in promoting handwashing through enhancing social-cognitive factors. The results confirm the relevance of testing interventions' underlying change processes

    Mechanisms of behavioural maintenance: Long-term effects of theory-based interventions to promote safe water consumption.

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    Theory-based interventions can enhance people's safe water consumption, but the sustainability of these interventions and the mechanisms of maintenance remain unclear. We investigated these questions based on an extended theory of planned behaviour. Seven hundred and ten (445 analysed) randomly selected households participated in two cluster-randomised controlled trials in Bangladesh. Study 1 promoted switching to neighbours' arsenic-safe wells, and Study 2 promoted switching to arsenic-safe deep wells. Both studies included two intervention phases. Structured interviews were conducted at baseline (T1), and at 1-month (T2), 2-month (T3) and 9-month (T4) follow-ups. In intervention phase 1 (between T1 and T2), commitment-based behaviour change techniques - reminders, implementation intentions and public commitment - were combined with information and compared to an information-only control group. In phase 2 (between T2 and T3), half of each phase 1 intervention group was randomly assigned to receive either commitment-based techniques once more or coping planning with reminders and information. Initial well-switching rates of up to 60% significantly declined by T4: 38.3% of T2 safe water users stopped consuming arsenic-safe water. The decline depended on the intervention. Perceived behavioural control, intentions, commitment strength and coping planning were associated with maintenance. In line with previous studies, the results indicate that commitment and reminders engender long-term behavioural change

    Differences in stakeholders’ and end users’ preferences of arsenic mitigation options in Bangladesh

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    Aim Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a public health crisis. Since its detection in Bangladesh, the world’s most arsenic-affected country, organizations involved (i.e., stakeholders) have made great efforts by testing wells and installing safe water options. Yet, 20 million Bangladeshi are still at risk. It has been suggested that the discrepancy between stakeholders’ and end users’ preferences of arsenic mitigation options is one reason for the slow progress. Therefore, this study aimed at comparing stakeholders’ and end users’ preferences. Subjects and methods Three investigations were conducted in Bangladesh: a series of qualitative interviews with 22 stakeholders and two end user surveys with a total of 1,268 randomly selected households living in six arsenic-affected districts of Bangladesh. Results Stakeholders mostly preferred rural piped water supplies and deep tubewells, while their least preferred options were dug wells and arsenic removal filters. End users mostly preferred deep tubewells, well-sharing and rural piped water supplies, while dug wells were least preferred. End users identified several disadvantages of mitigation options, including long distances, great effort to collect water and difficult social situations. They further demonstrated moderate willingness to pay for a rural piped water supply, deep tubewells and pond sand filters, but lower willingness for other options. Conclusion Stakeholders’ and end users’ preferences converged for deep tubewells and rural piped water supplies, while well-sharing was preferred by end users, but not by stakeholders. The results suggest installing deep tubewells and rural piped water supplies with greater priority. Furthermore, stakeholders’ preferences to promote well-sharing should be enhanced

    Developing and testing theory-based and evidence-based interventions to promote switching to arsenic-safe wells in Bangladesh

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    Millions of people in Bangladesh drink arsenic-contaminated water despite increased awareness of consequences to health. Theory-based and evidence-based interventions are likely to have greater impact on people switching to existing arsenic-safe wells than providing information alone. To test this assumption, we first developed interventions based on an empirical test of the Risk, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities and Self-regulation (RANAS) model of behaviour change. In the second part of this study, a cluster-randomised controlled trial revealed that in accordance with our hypotheses, information alone showed smaller increases in switching to arsenic-safe wells than information with reminders or information with reminders and implementation intentions
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