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Current infection control behaviour patterns in the UK, and how they can be improved by 'Germ Defence', an online behavioural intervention to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the home.

Current infection control behaviour patterns in the UK, and how they can be improved by 'Germ Defence', an online behavioural intervention to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the home.
Current infection control behaviour patterns in the UK, and how they can be improved by 'Germ Defence', an online behavioural intervention to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the home.
Background: Germ Defence (https://germdefence.org/) is a freely available website providing behavioural advice for infection control within households, using behaviour change techniques. This observational study reports current infection control behaviours in the home in UK and international users of the website, and examine how they might be improved to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Method: 28,285 users sought advice from four website pathways (to protect themselves generally, to protect others if the user was showing symptoms, to protect themselves if household members were showing symptoms, and to protect a household member who is at high risk) and completed outcome measures of current infection control behaviours within the home (self-isolation, social distancing, putting shopping/packages aside, wearing face-covering, cleaning and disinfecting, handwashing), and intentions to change these behaviours.
Results: Current user behaviours mean scores varied across all infection control measures but were between 'sometimes' and 'quite often', except handwashing ('very often'). Behaviours were similar regardless of the website pathway used. After using Germ Defence, users recorded intentions to improve infection control behaviour across all website pathways and for all behaviours.
Conclusions: Self-reported infection control behaviours other than handwashing are lower than is optimal for infection prevention, although reported handwashing is much higher. The advice using behaviour change techniques in Germ Defence led to intentions to improve these behaviours. This has been shown previously to reduce the incidence, severity and transmission of infections. These findings suggest that promoting Germ Defence within national and local public health guidance could reduce COVID-19 transmission.</jats:p>
Ainsworth, Ben
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Miller, Sascha
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Denison-Day, James
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Stuart, Beth
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Groot, Julia
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Rice, Cathy
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Bostock, Jennifer
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Hu, Xiao- Yang
Morton, Kate
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Towler, Lauren
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Moore, Michael
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Willcox, Merlin L.
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Chadborn, Tim
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Gold, Natalie
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Amlôt, Richard
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Little, Paul
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Yardley, Lucy
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Ainsworth, Ben
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Miller, Sascha
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Denison-Day, James
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Stuart, Beth
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Groot, Julia
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Rice, Cathy
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Bostock, Jennifer
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Hu, Xiao- Yang
Morton, Kate
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Towler, Lauren
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Moore, Michael
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Willcox, Merlin L.
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Chadborn, Tim
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Gold, Natalie
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Amlôt, Richard
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Little, Paul
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Yardley, Lucy
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[Unknown type: UNSPECIFIED]

Record type: UNSPECIFIED

Abstract

Background: Germ Defence (https://germdefence.org/) is a freely available website providing behavioural advice for infection control within households, using behaviour change techniques. This observational study reports current infection control behaviours in the home in UK and international users of the website, and examine how they might be improved to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Method: 28,285 users sought advice from four website pathways (to protect themselves generally, to protect others if the user was showing symptoms, to protect themselves if household members were showing symptoms, and to protect a household member who is at high risk) and completed outcome measures of current infection control behaviours within the home (self-isolation, social distancing, putting shopping/packages aside, wearing face-covering, cleaning and disinfecting, handwashing), and intentions to change these behaviours.
Results: Current user behaviours mean scores varied across all infection control measures but were between 'sometimes' and 'quite often', except handwashing ('very often'). Behaviours were similar regardless of the website pathway used. After using Germ Defence, users recorded intentions to improve infection control behaviour across all website pathways and for all behaviours.
Conclusions: Self-reported infection control behaviours other than handwashing are lower than is optimal for infection prevention, although reported handwashing is much higher. The advice using behaviour change techniques in Germ Defence led to intentions to improve these behaviours. This has been shown previously to reduce the incidence, severity and transmission of infections. These findings suggest that promoting Germ Defence within national and local public health guidance could reduce COVID-19 transmission.</jats:p>

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2020.06.22.20137406v1.full - Author's Original
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
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Published date: 23 June 2020

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 491385
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/491385
PURE UUID: 5989f843-8426-40fc-95f6-60918d1799dc
ORCID for Ben Ainsworth: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5098-1092
ORCID for James Denison-Day: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0223-0005
ORCID for Lauren Towler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6597-0927
ORCID for Merlin L. Willcox: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5227-3444
ORCID for Paul Little: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3664-1873
ORCID for Lucy Yardley: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3853-883X

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Date deposited: 21 Jun 2024 16:35
Last modified: 01 Oct 2024 01:59

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Contributors

Author: Ben Ainsworth ORCID iD
Author: Sascha Miller
Author: Beth Stuart
Author: Julia Groot
Author: Cathy Rice
Author: Jennifer Bostock
Author: Xiao- Yang Hu
Author: Kate Morton
Author: Lauren Towler ORCID iD
Author: Michael Moore
Author: Tim Chadborn
Author: Natalie Gold
Author: Richard Amlôt
Author: Paul Little ORCID iD
Author: Lucy Yardley ORCID iD

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