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Frequent handwashing with soap for at least 20 seconds at a time is widely advised as one of the preventive measures against COVID-19. Yet, while it is possible to quickly influence individual hygiene behavior in the short term, in the long run, changing handwashing culture in a particular country as well as globally is a much more difficult task....
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... the frequencies are 25% and 23%, correspondingly. The best handwashing culture is observed in Saudi Arabia, with only 3% of people not washing their hand habitually (see Figure 1). Across all 63 countries in the sample, the minimum handwashing culture proxy is equal to 3%, the maximum is 77% with the mean value of 26% and a standard deviation of 15.6%. ...
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Citations
... Furthermore, they were entirely new to the majority of the population and did not conform to established social norms. As expected, they pose a much greater challenge to enact, potentially resulting in adverse psychological consequences, notably anxiety and depression, because they push against deep human's instinct for togetherness [4,5]. ...
... Notably, health behaviors involving avoidant measures, such as wearing a mask, limiting social contact, and practicing physical distancing, demonstrated a greater decline, especially during the last two waves. These results align with previous research suggesting that behaviors requiring avoidance or social restraint may be more challenging to sustain over time because of associated psychological costs [4,5]. Specifically, Wollast et al. [5] found that those participants with high levels of adherence to social contact limitations and physical distancing experienced greater loneliness and lower life satisfaction over time (note that this effect was marginal for mask wearing and nonsignificant for handwashing). ...
We investigated the social, emotional, and cognitive predictors of adherence to four health behaviors (handwashing, mask wearing, social contact limitations, and physical distancing) during one critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data (N = 5803, mean age = 53; 57% women) in Belgium at five time points between April and July 2021, a time during which infections evolved from high (third wave of the pandemic) to low numbers of COVID-19 cases. The results show that the social, emotional, and cognitive predictors achieved high levels of explained variance (R² > .60). In particular, the central components of behavioral change (attitudes, intentions, control, habits, norms, and risk) were the strongest and most consistent predictors of health behaviors over time. Likewise, autonomous motivation and empathetic emotions (e.g., attentive, compassionate) had a positive impact on health behavior adherence, whereas it was the opposite for lively emotions (e.g., active, enthusiastic). These results offer policymakers actionable insights into the most potent and stable factors associated with health behaviors, equipping them with effective strategies to curtail the spread of future infectious diseases.
... There were 2 attempts to connect COVID-19 with socio-cultural variables so far in searching engines: • For 63 world countries, there was no significant relationship between social dimensions and COVID-19 case numbers (Pogrebna & Kharlamov, 2020); • For 93 countries (Messner, 2020) epidemic growth rate was significantly explained by institutional context (negatively associated), education (positively associated), individualistic rather than collectivistic (negatively associated), power distance (negatively associated), Hedonistic values (positively associated). ...
Introduction. This study examines the relationship between social values and the control of the COVID-19 pandemic in selected European countries during the early months of 2020. Methods. Utilizing epidemiological data, including starting and controlled reproduction rates (R(t)), and social values' dimensions based on Schwartz's framework, we uncover significant associations by linear regressions. Results. Our findings reveal that highly hierarchical societies with a strong focus on maximising individual utility (affective autonomy) are less successful in controlling the spread of the virus. Conversely, societies with interconnected (embedded) structures appear to be more effective in disease control. Our discussion acknowledges the complexity of distinguishing between natural disease patterns and control efforts. Interactive dashboard is available: https://infodemia-koronawirusa.shinyapps.io/culture/ Conclusions. This study underscores the substantial influence of social values on disease control in Europe. It emphasises the need to consider social contexts when evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation strategies on an international scale. While recognising the potential role of confounding variables such as healthcare capacity, our research suggests that analysing outbreak dynamics across countries can provide insights into not only why some nations fare better but also how to combat future disease spread effectively.
... Similarly, a systematic review of the effectiveness of personal protective measures in preventing H1N1 pandemic influenza transmission in human populations indicated a 38% reduction in transmission with handwashing (Saunders-Hastings et al., 2017). In sum, most people understand the importance of handwashing to reduce disease transmission and washing hands frequently is often noted as a reaction (Pogrebna & Kharlamov, 2020). ...
... As expected, these associations were significant but weaker for handwashing. These findings were expected given that limiting social contacts by staying home, respecting physical distancing in public places, and face coverings are avoidant behaviors (Bish & Michie, 2010), which have a psychological cost, whereas handwashing is a non-avoidant protective health behavior (Pogrebna & Kharlamov, 2020). Note however that communication campaigns also encouraged people to not shake hands anymore, which can be considered as an avoidant behavior, but this level of behavioral avoidance was minor compared to fundamental behaviors such as the need for social contacts and togetherness. ...
... When hand hygiene is practised in community school settings, research has shown that it has reduced absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illness [7,8]. Research has also shown that handwashing effectively reduces the spread of viruses such as the newly discovered coronavirus causing COVID-19 [9,10]. ...
We conducted an empirical study to co-design a social robot with children to bring about long-term behavioural changes. As a case study, we focused our efforts to create a social robot to promote handwashing in community settings while adhering to minimalistic design principles. Since cultural views influence design preferences and technology acceptance, we selected forty children from different socio-economic backgrounds across India as informants for our design study. We asked the children to design paper mock-ups using pre-cut geometrical shapes to understand their mental models of such a robot. The children also shared their feedback on the eight resulting different conceptual designs of minimalistic caricatured social robots. Our findings show that children had varied expectations of the robot’s emotional intelligence, interactions, and social roles even though it was being designed for a specific context of use. The children unequivocally liked and trusted anthropomorphized caricatured designs of everyday objects for the robot’s morphology. Based on these findings, we present our recommendations for the physical and interaction features of a minimalist social robot assimilating the children’s inputs and social robot design principles grounded in prior research. Future studies will examine the children’s interactions with a built prototype.
... It is important to note however that the resilience to comply with this health behavior might not generalize to other more costly and 'unnatural' behaviors such as social contact limitation which runs counter to the very social nature of humans being and has proven to be detrimental to mental health and livelihood Pogrebna & Kharlamov, 2020;West et al., 2020). To illustrate, Wollast et al. (2022) found that participants belonging to trajectory groups with high levels of social contacts limitation and physical distancing experienced poorer mental health, but this was not the case for participants having high levels of adherence to handwashing over time. ...
Background: Using a longitudinal design, we investigate how the adherence to handwashing and its underlying socio-psychological predictors evolved over time during the COVID-19 pandemic and under distinct circumstances (e.g. when the crisis was more acute or chronic). Method: We collected data (N = 753) in Belgium and France at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when the crisis was at its peak (April 2020), and almost a year later (February 2021), when the outbreak was more manageable. Results: Regression models suggest that the compliance with handwashing and its pattern of underlying predictors remained remarkably stable over time despite the variations in contextual factors such as the severity of the health crisis and the stringency of health measures. As such, the findings also highlight the robustness of the models that predict it, namely the Theory of Planned Behavior. The intentions to perform the behavior, the perceived control over it, and being part of the (para)medical field were among the strongest predictors. Conclusions: In practice, the stability of the underlying factors suggests a set of action levers that can be used in communication campaigns aimed at fostering its adherence throughout the pandemic.
... It has been known that some preventive measures such as hand washing and facemask wearing diverge across Eastern and Western hemispheres [30][31][32]. Compared to people in Eastern countries (e.g., China, Japan, and South Korea), people in Western countries (e.g., Italy, UK, and USA) are more likely to wash hands frequently and less likely to wear facemasks in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 [31,32]. ...
... It has been known that some preventive measures such as hand washing and facemask wearing diverge across Eastern and Western hemispheres [30][31][32]. Compared to people in Eastern countries (e.g., China, Japan, and South Korea), people in Western countries (e.g., Italy, UK, and USA) are more likely to wash hands frequently and less likely to wear facemasks in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 [31,32]. In addition, a cross-cultural study revealed that people in Europe had less knowledge of COVID-19 and were less aware of COVID-19 compared to people in Asia as the pandemic began to unfold in 2020 [33]. ...
Identifying modifiable correlates of older adults’ preventive behaviors is contributable to
the prevention of the COVID-19 and future pandemics. This study aimed to examine the associations of social-cognitive factors (motivational and volitional factors) with three preventive behaviors (hand washing, facemask wearing, and physical distancing) in a mixed sample of older adults from China and Germany and to evaluate the moderating effects of countries. A total of 578 older adults (356 Chinese and 222 German) completed the online cross-sectional study. The questionnaire included demographics, three preventive behaviors before and during the pandemic, motivational factors (health knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, risk perception, motivational self-efficacy (MSE),
intention), and volitional factors (volitional self-efficacy (VSE), planning, and self monitoring) of preventive behaviors. Results showed that most social-cognitive factors were associated with three behaviors with small-to-moderate effect sizes (f 2 = 0.02 to 0.17), controlled for demographics and past behaviors. Country moderated five associations, including VSE and hand washing, self-monitoring and facemask wearing, MSE and physical distancing, VSE and physical distancing, and planning and physical distancing. Findings underline the generic importance of modifiable factors and give new
insights to future intervention and policymaking. Country-related mechanisms should be considered when aiming to learn from other countries about the promotion of preventive behaviors.
... Especially today, considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, washing one's own hands properly is essential: Pogrebna and Kharlamov [271] have found that the hand-washing culture of a country is a good predictor of the magnitude of COVID-19 spread, and partially explains why the virus spreads faster in certain countries than in others. Although it is simple, effective, and of substantial importance for health, hand washing, especially after using the bathroom, is often not done at all [169] and is mostly performed for a very short time [166]. ...
Gamification, the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has been shown to help people reaching their goals, affect people's behavior and enhance the users' experience within interactive systems. However, past research has shown that gamification is not always successful. In fact, literature reviews revealed that almost half of the interventions were only partially successful or even unsuccessful. Therefore, understanding the factors that have an influence on psychological measures and behavioral outcomes of gamified systems is much in need. In this thesis, we contribute to this by considering the context in which gamified systems are applied and by understanding personal factors of users interacting with the system. Guided by Self-Determination Theory, a major theory on human motivation, we investigate gamification and its effects on motivation and behavior in behavior change contexts, provide insights on contextual factors, contribute knowledge on the effect of personal factors on both the perception and effectiveness of gamification elements and lay out ways of utilizing this knowledge to implement personalized gamified systems. Our contribution is manifold: We show that gamification affects motivation through need satisfaction and by evoking positive affective experiences, ultimately leading to changes in people's behavior. Moreover, we show that age, the intention to change behavior, and Hexad user types play an important role in explaining interpersonal differences in the perception of gamification elements and that tailoring gamified systems based on these personal factors has beneficial effects on both psychological and behavioral outcomes. Lastly, we show that Hexad user types can be partially predicted by smartphone data and interaction behavior in gamified systems and that they can be assessed in a gameful way, allowing to utilize our findings in gamification practice. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework to increase motivation in gamified systems, which builds upon our findings and outlines the importance of considering both contextual and personal factors. Based on these contributions, this thesis advances the field of gamification by contributing knowledge to the open questions of how and why gamification works and which factors play a role in this regard.
... En un estudio realizado en Estados Unidos se demostró que aquellas personas con menores ingresos y educación tuvieron tasas más bajas de lavado de manos y desinfección de superficies (5). En Brasil, el 27 %; en Ecuador, el 24 %; en Argentina, el 20 %, y en Perú, el 18 % no se lava las manos (4). Entre tanto, en Lima, un 77,2 % de los cuidadores de adultos mayores no ha recibido capacitación en lavado de manos (6), y menos lo practican de manera correcta. ...
The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between accessibility to hand hygiene products, use of antibacterial gel and satisfaction among adults from the Human Settlement 16 de Octubre in the city of Chachapoyas (Peru). The study was quantitative, with a relational, prospective, cross-sectional and analytical design, whose sample was represented by 46 adults, chosen by non-probability purposive sampling. It was found that 54.3% of adults consider hand hygiene products to be expensive, 67.4% spend between 5 and 10 soles per week, 69.6 % have access to water in their homes; however, 60.9% have only non-potable water. Regarding hand washing, 54.3% do it in the spout and sink and the rest use a bucket or jug. Likewise, 45% never used antibacterial gel, 30.4% always and 23.9% sometimes. Regarding satisfaction with the use of antibacterial gel, 43.5% are not very satisfied, 29% are satisfied, 15.2% are very satisfied, and 2.2% are not at all satisfied. It is concluded that there is a highly significant relationship between the use of antibacterial gel and the satisfaction of older adults (p = 0.000).
... In einer Untersuchung zeigte sich eine starke Korrelation zwischen der Gewohnheit, sich die Hände zu waschen, und dem Grad bzw. dem Tempo des Ausbruchs von COVID-19 [11] . Insbesondere Regionen, in denen Menschen nicht die Gewohnheit haben, sich die Hände automatisch zu waschen (z. ...
... However, the data used in this systematic review were collected under various protocols, making detailed comparison of behavioral norms difficult. We are aware of a global survey that measured hand washing practices in one specific context: after using the toilet ( Pogrebna and Kharlamov, 2020 ). For spitting there is almost no rigorous research on how contemporary norms differ between societies. ...
... Elias saw this as the outcome of increased interconnectedness between members of society, caused by the emergence of monopolies and central governance which removed people from coercion and consequently a more sophisticated division of labour arose ( Linklater and Mennell, 2010 ). Key outcomes of this process were an increase in hygiene behaviors and a reduction in violence, the latter theme famously picked up by Pinker (2012) . Note that we present the theory in its most distilled format; interested readers are referred to more comprehensive summaries ( Mennell and Goudsblom, 1997 ;Linklater and Mennell, 2010 ). ...
Three major theories could potentially explain why hygiene norms vary across societies: tightness-looseness theory, disease threat theory, and theory of a civilizing process driven by how self-control is valued. We test these theories using data from a study of 56 countries across the globe, in which almost 20,000 participants reported their norms about spitting in six different contexts, hand washing in six different contexts, and tooth brushing. Participants also reported the perceived tightness of their society, whether they perceived diseases as a threat to their society, and their valuation of self-control. In support of the civilizing process, most of the norms in our study (including most hand washing norms and most spitting norms) were stricter in countries where self-control is valued more highly. A few norms did not follow this main pattern and these norms were instead stricter in countries where disease was perceived as a greater threat. Thus, while the theory of a civilizing process received the strongest support, our data indicate that some combination with the disease threat theory may be required to fully explain country-variation in hygiene norms.
