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?:abstract
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BACKGROUND To control the COVID-19 pandemic, people should adopt protective behaviors at home (self-isolation, social distancing, putting shopping/packages aside, wearing face-covering, cleaning and disinfecting, handwashing). There is currently limited support to help individuals conduct these behaviors. OBJECTIVE We aimed to report current household infection control behaviors in the UK, and examine how they might be improved. METHODS This was a pragmatic, cross-sectional observational study of anonymous participant data from Germ Defence (https://germdefence.org/) between May 6th and May 24th 2020. Germ Defence is an open access, fully automated, website providing behavioral advice for infection control within households. 28,285 users sought advice from four website pathways based on household status (advice 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). Users reported current infection control behaviors within the home, and intentions to change these behaviors. RESULTS Current behaviors varied across all infection control measures but were between \'sometimes\' (face covering M 1.61, SD 1.19, socially distance M 2.40, SD 1.22, isolating M 2.78, SD 1.29, putting packages/shopping aside M 2.75, SD 1.55) and \'quite often\' (cleaning/disinfecting M 3.17, SD 1.18), except handwashing (\'very often\' M 4.00, SD 1.03). Behaviors were similar regardless of the website pathway used. After using Germ Defence, users recorded intentions to improve infection control behavior across all website pathways and for all behaviors (overall average infection control score MD 0.30, CI[0.29, 0.31]). CONCLUSIONS Self-reported infection control behaviors other than handwashing are lower than is optimal for infection prevention, although handwashing is much higher. Advice using behavior change techniques in Germ Defence led to intentions to improve these behaviors. Promoting Germ Defence within national and local public health/primary care guidance could reduce COVID-19 transmission.
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