JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Collaborating Centre for Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response (CCOUC), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Mar 31;23(1):618. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15257-y.
In addition to high vaccination levels, COVID-19 control requires uptake and continued adherence to personal hygiene and social distancing behaviors. It is unclear whether residents of a city with successive experience in worldwide pandemics such as SARS, would quickly adopt and maintain preventive behaviors.
A population-based, longitudinal telephone survey was conducted between in first local wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020) and third local wave (December 2020) (n = 403). The study examined factors associated with personal hygiene and social distancing behavior fatigue, as measured by reduced adherence.
Over 9 months, face mask use increased (96.5-100%, p < 0.001). Although habitual hand hygiene remained unchanged (92.0%), blue collar workers and non-working individuals showed higher risk of hand hygiene fatigue. There was a decline (p < 0.05) in avoidance of social gatherings (81.1 to 70.7%), avoidance of public places (52.9-27.5%) and avoidance of international travel (81.9-77.4%) even with rising caseloads. Lowered perception of COVID-19 disease severity was associated with decreased avoidance of social gatherings and public places while lower education was associated with decline in avoidance of social gatherings.
Even in regions with past pandemic experience, maintaining social distancing behaviors during a protracted pandemic remains a major public health challenge.
除了高疫苗接种率外，控制 COVID-19 还需要人们采取并坚持个人卫生和社会隔离措施。目前尚不清楚在经历过 SARS 等全球大流行的城市中，居民是否能够迅速采取并保持预防措施。
在 COVID-19 大流行的第一波本地疫情（2020 年 4 月）和第三波本地疫情（2020 年 12 月）期间，进行了一项基于人群的纵向电话调查（n=403）。本研究调查了与个人卫生和社会隔离行为疲劳相关的因素，疲劳的衡量标准是行为的依从性降低。
在 9 个月的时间里，口罩使用率上升（96.5-100%，p<0.001）。虽然习惯性手部卫生保持不变（92.0%），但蓝领工人和非工作者手部卫生疲劳的风险更高。避免社交聚会（81.1-70.7%）、避免公共场所（52.9-27.5%）和避免国际旅行（81.9-77.4%）的行为都有所下降（p<0.05），尽管病例数在不断上升。对 COVID-19 疾病严重程度的认知降低与避免社交聚会和公共场所的行为减少有关，而教育程度较低与避免社交聚会的行为减少有关。
即使在有过去大流行经验的地区，在长时间的大流行期间保持社会隔离措施仍然是一个重大的公共卫生挑战。
