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Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

During the coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the basic strategy that is recommended to reduce the spread of the disease is to practice proper hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors, but among adolescents, low adherence is common. The present study aimed to assess the gender-depende...

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Autores principales: Guzek, Dominika, Skolmowska, Dominika, Głąbska, Dominika
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7459707/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32785004
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165770
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author Guzek, Dominika
Skolmowska, Dominika
Głąbska, Dominika
author_facet Guzek, Dominika
Skolmowska, Dominika
Głąbska, Dominika
author_sort Guzek, Dominika
collection PubMed
description During the coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the basic strategy that is recommended to reduce the spread of the disease is to practice proper hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors, but among adolescents, low adherence is common. The present study aimed to assess the gender-dependent hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors in a national sample of Polish adolescents. The Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study was conducted in a group of 2323 secondary school students (814 males, 1509 females). Schools were chosen based on the random quota sampling procedure. The participants were surveyed to assess their knowledge and beliefs associated with hand hygiene and personal protection, as well as their actual behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of respondents gave proper answers when asked about their knowledge. However, females displayed a higher level of knowledge (p < 0.05). Most of the respondents declared not leaving home, handwashing, using alcohol-based hand rub, avoiding contact with those who may be sick, and avoiding public places as their personal protective behaviors. They declared using face masks and gloves after the legal regulation requiring people to cover their nose and mouth in public places was enacted in Poland. Regarding the use of face masks and not touching the face, no gender-dependent differences were observed, while for all the other behaviors, females declared more adherence than males (p < 0.05). Females also declared a higher daily frequency of handwashing (p < 0.0001) and washing their hands always when necessary more often than males (68.2% vs. 54.1%; p < 0.0001). Males more often indicated various reasons for not handwashing, including that there is no need to do it, they do not feel like doing it, they have no time to do it, or they forget about it (p < 0.0001), while females pointed out side effects (e.g., skin problems) as the reason (p = 0.0278). Females more often declared handwashing in circumstances associated with socializing, being exposed to contact with other people and health (p < 0.05), and declared always including the recommended steps in their handwashing procedure (p < 0.05). The results showed that female secondary school students exhibited a higher level of knowledge on hand hygiene and personal protection, as well as better behaviors, compared to males. However, irrespective of gender, some false beliefs and improper behaviors were observed, which suggests that education is necessary, especially in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-74597072020-09-02 Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study Guzek, Dominika Skolmowska, Dominika Głąbska, Dominika Int J Environ Res Public Health Article During the coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the basic strategy that is recommended to reduce the spread of the disease is to practice proper hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors, but among adolescents, low adherence is common. The present study aimed to assess the gender-dependent hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors in a national sample of Polish adolescents. The Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study was conducted in a group of 2323 secondary school students (814 males, 1509 females). Schools were chosen based on the random quota sampling procedure. The participants were surveyed to assess their knowledge and beliefs associated with hand hygiene and personal protection, as well as their actual behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of respondents gave proper answers when asked about their knowledge. However, females displayed a higher level of knowledge (p < 0.05). Most of the respondents declared not leaving home, handwashing, using alcohol-based hand rub, avoiding contact with those who may be sick, and avoiding public places as their personal protective behaviors. They declared using face masks and gloves after the legal regulation requiring people to cover their nose and mouth in public places was enacted in Poland. Regarding the use of face masks and not touching the face, no gender-dependent differences were observed, while for all the other behaviors, females declared more adherence than males (p < 0.05). Females also declared a higher daily frequency of handwashing (p < 0.0001) and washing their hands always when necessary more often than males (68.2% vs. 54.1%; p < 0.0001). Males more often indicated various reasons for not handwashing, including that there is no need to do it, they do not feel like doing it, they have no time to do it, or they forget about it (p < 0.0001), while females pointed out side effects (e.g., skin problems) as the reason (p = 0.0278). Females more often declared handwashing in circumstances associated with socializing, being exposed to contact with other people and health (p < 0.05), and declared always including the recommended steps in their handwashing procedure (p < 0.05). The results showed that female secondary school students exhibited a higher level of knowledge on hand hygiene and personal protection, as well as better behaviors, compared to males. However, irrespective of gender, some false beliefs and improper behaviors were observed, which suggests that education is necessary, especially in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. MDPI 2020-08-10 2020-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7459707/ /pubmed/32785004 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165770 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Guzek, Dominika
Skolmowska, Dominika
Głąbska, Dominika
Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study
title Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study
title_full Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study
title_fullStr Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study
title_short Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study
title_sort analysis of gender-dependent personal protective behaviors in a national sample: polish adolescents’ covid-19 experience (place-19) study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7459707/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32785004
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165770
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