The trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic and handwashing adherence: findings from 14 countries

• Main Authors: Szczuka, Zofia, Abraham, Charles, Baban, Adriana, Brooks, Sydney, Cipolletta, Sabrina, Danso, Ebrima, Dombrowski, Stephan U., Gan, Yiqun, Gaspar, Tania, de Matos, Margarida Gaspar, Griva, Konstadina, Jongenelis, Michelle, Keller, Jan, Knoll, Nina, Ma, Jinjin, Mohammad Abdul Awal Miah, Morgan, Karen, Peraud, William, Quintard, Bruno, Shah, Vishna, Schenkel, Konstantin, Scholz, Urte, Schwarzer, Ralf, Siwa, Maria, Szymanski, Kamil, Taut, Diana, Tomaino, Silvia C. M., Vilchinsky, Noa, Wolf, Hodaya, Luszczynska, Aleksandra
• Other Authors: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Science::Medicine; Hand Hygiene; COVID-19
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153978
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people's engagement in health behaviors, especially those that protect individuals from SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as handwashing/sanitizing. This study investigated whether adherence to the World Health Organization's (WHO) handwashing guidelines (the outcome variable) was associated with the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, as measured by the following 6 indicators: (i) the number of new cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality (a country-level mean calculated for the 14 days prior to data collection), (ii) total cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality accumulated since the onset of the pandemic, and (iii) changes in recent cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality (a difference between country-level COVID-19 morbidity/mortality in the previous 14 days compared to cases recorded 14-28 days earlier).