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First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study

This study was to observe smoking behaviours and infection control behaviours in smokers at outdoor smoking hotspots during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. We conducted unobtrusive observations at nine hotspots during 1 July 2019–31 January 2020 (pre-outbreak, 39 observations), 1 February–30 Apr...

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Autores principales: Sun, Yuying, Lam, Tai Hing, Cheung, Yee Tak Derek, Wang, Man Ping, Wu, Yongda, Chen, Jianjiu, Zhang, Xiaoyu, Li, William H. C., Ho, Sai Yin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7908604/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33503837
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031031
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author Sun, Yuying
Lam, Tai Hing
Cheung, Yee Tak Derek
Wang, Man Ping
Wu, Yongda
Chen, Jianjiu
Zhang, Xiaoyu
Li, William H. C.
Ho, Sai Yin
author_facet Sun, Yuying
Lam, Tai Hing
Cheung, Yee Tak Derek
Wang, Man Ping
Wu, Yongda
Chen, Jianjiu
Zhang, Xiaoyu
Li, William H. C.
Ho, Sai Yin
author_sort Sun, Yuying
collection PubMed
description This study was to observe smoking behaviours and infection control behaviours in smokers at outdoor smoking hotspots during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. We conducted unobtrusive observations at nine hotspots during 1 July 2019–31 January 2020 (pre-outbreak, 39 observations), 1 February–30 April 2020 (outbreak, eight observations), and 1 May–11 June 2020 (since-outbreak, 20 observations). Sex, age group, type of tobacco products used, duration of stay, group smoking behaviours, face mask wearing and infection control behaviours of smokers, and mask wearing of non-smoking pedestrians were observed. Compared with pre-outbreak, lower volumes of smokers were observed during outbreak and since-outbreak. Smokers gathered more in a group (24.5% and 25.8% vs. 13.4%, respectively) and stayed longer (91.5% and 83.6% vs. 80.6% stayed ≥1 min) during outbreak and since-outbreak than pre-outbreak. Ninety-six percent smokers possessed a face mask. While smoking, 81.6% of smokers put the mask under the chin and 13.8% carried it in the hand, 32.4% did not wear a mask immediately after smoking, 98.0% did not sanitize hands, and 74.3% did not keep a distance of at least one metre. During the COVID-19 pandemic, smokers gathered closely and stayed longer at the hotspots, and few practised hand hygiene, all of which may increase the risk of infection.
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spelling pubmed-79086042021-02-27 First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study Sun, Yuying Lam, Tai Hing Cheung, Yee Tak Derek Wang, Man Ping Wu, Yongda Chen, Jianjiu Zhang, Xiaoyu Li, William H. C. Ho, Sai Yin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This study was to observe smoking behaviours and infection control behaviours in smokers at outdoor smoking hotspots during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. We conducted unobtrusive observations at nine hotspots during 1 July 2019–31 January 2020 (pre-outbreak, 39 observations), 1 February–30 April 2020 (outbreak, eight observations), and 1 May–11 June 2020 (since-outbreak, 20 observations). Sex, age group, type of tobacco products used, duration of stay, group smoking behaviours, face mask wearing and infection control behaviours of smokers, and mask wearing of non-smoking pedestrians were observed. Compared with pre-outbreak, lower volumes of smokers were observed during outbreak and since-outbreak. Smokers gathered more in a group (24.5% and 25.8% vs. 13.4%, respectively) and stayed longer (91.5% and 83.6% vs. 80.6% stayed ≥1 min) during outbreak and since-outbreak than pre-outbreak. Ninety-six percent smokers possessed a face mask. While smoking, 81.6% of smokers put the mask under the chin and 13.8% carried it in the hand, 32.4% did not wear a mask immediately after smoking, 98.0% did not sanitize hands, and 74.3% did not keep a distance of at least one metre. During the COVID-19 pandemic, smokers gathered closely and stayed longer at the hotspots, and few practised hand hygiene, all of which may increase the risk of infection. MDPI 2021-01-25 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7908604/ /pubmed/33503837 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031031 Text en © 2021 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
Sun, Yuying
Lam, Tai Hing
Cheung, Yee Tak Derek
Wang, Man Ping
Wu, Yongda
Chen, Jianjiu
Zhang, Xiaoyu
Li, William H. C.
Ho, Sai Yin
First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study
title First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study
title_full First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study
title_fullStr First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study
title_full_unstemmed First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study
title_short First Report on Smoking and Infection Control Behaviours at Outdoor Hotspots during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unobtrusive Observational Study
title_sort first report on smoking and infection control behaviours at outdoor hotspots during the covid-19 pandemic: an unobtrusive observational study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7908604/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33503837
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031031
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