IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2210.09094.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Large gender and age differences in hand disinfection behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: Field data from Swiss retail stores

Author

Listed:
  • Frauke von Bieberstein
  • Anna-Corinna Kulle
  • Stefanie Schumacher

Abstract

Hand hygiene is one of the key low-cost measures proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to contain the spread of COVID-19. In a field study conducted during the pandemic in June and July 2020 in Switzerland, we captured the hand disinfection behavior of customers in five stores of a large retail chain (n = 8,245). The study reveals considerable differences with respect to gender and age: Women were 8.3 percentage points more likely to disinfect their hands compared to men. With respect to age, we identified a steep increase across age groups, with people age 60 years and older disinfecting their hands significantly more often than younger adults (>+16.7 percentage points) and youth (>+ 31.7 percentage points). A validation study conducted in December 2020 (n = 1,918) confirmed the gender and age differences at a later point in the pandemic. In sum, the differences between gender and age groups are substantial and should be considered in the design of protective measures to ensure clean and safe hands.

Suggested Citation

  • Frauke von Bieberstein & Anna-Corinna Kulle & Stefanie Schumacher, 2022. "Large gender and age differences in hand disinfection behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: Field data from Swiss retail stores," Papers 2210.09094, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2210.09094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.09094
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daoust, Jean-François & Nadeau, Richard & Dassonneville, Ruth & Lachapelle, Erick & Bélanger, Éric & Savoie, Justin & van der Linden, Clifton, 2020. "How to survey citizens’ compliance with COVID-19 public health measures? Evidence from three survey experiments," SocArXiv gursd, Center for Open Science.
    2. Maria Barcenilla-Guitard & Anna Espart, 2021. "Influence of Gender, Age and Field of Study on Hand Hygiene in Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study in the COVID-19 Pandemic Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Sheng Zhi Zhao & Janet Yuen Ha Wong & Yongda Wu & Edmond Pui Hang Choi & Man Ping Wang & Tai Hing Lam, 2020. "Social Distancing Compliance under COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health Impacts: A Population-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-11, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rasel Mia & Ahmed Imran KABIR & Abdullah Al Fahad, 2022. "Post-COVID Psychological Impact on Social Media Users: A Study on Twitter Users," Informatica Economica, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 26(4), pages 40-54.
    2. Francesco Bogliacino & Rafael Charris & Camilo Gómez & Felipe Montealegre & Cristiano Codagnone, 2021. "Expert endorsement and the legitimacy of public policy. Evidence from Covid19 mitigation strategies," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3-4), pages 394-415, April.
    3. Sylvain Gnamien Traoré & Gilbert Fokou & Affou Seraphin Wognin & Kathrin Heitz-Tokpa & Sopi Mathilde Tetchi & Foungoye Allassane Ouattara & Malik Orou Seko & Chantal Akoua-Koffi & Issaka Tiembre & Bas, 2023. "Preventive Measures against Ebola and COVID-19 and Their Impact on Human Dirty-Hand Disease Mitigation in Côte d’Ivoire," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, April.
    4. Francesco Sarracino & Talita Greyling & Kelsey J. O'Connor & Chiara Peroni & Stephanie Rossouw, 2021. "Trust predicts compliance to Covid-19 containment policies: evidence from ten countries using big data," Department of Economics University of Siena 858, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    5. Md. Mokhlesur Rahman & Jean-Claude Thill, 2022. "Associations between COVID-19 Pandemic, Lockdown Measures and Human Mobility: Longitudinal Evidence from 86 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-31, June.
    6. Henrike Schecke & Madeleine Fink & Alexander Bäuerle & Eva-Maria Skoda & Adam Schweda & Venja Musche & Hannah Dinse & Benjamin Maurice Weismüller & Sheila Moradian & Norbert Scherbaum & Martin Teufel, 2021. "Changes in Substance Use and Mental Health Burden among Women during the Second Wave of COVID-19 in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-12, September.
    7. Le Shi & Zheng-An Lu & Jian-Yu Que & Xiao-Lin Huang & Qing-Dong Lu & Lin Liu & Yong-Bo Zheng & Wei-Jian Liu & Mao-Sheng Ran & Kai Yuan & Wei Yan & Yan-Kun Sun & Si-Wei Sun & Jie Shi & Thomas Kosten & , 2021. "Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health among the General Public: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-18, August.
    8. Ozan Aksoy, 2022. "Within-family influences on compliance with social-distancing measures during COVID-19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(12), pages 1660-1668, December.
    9. Alex Molassiotis & Yao Jie Xie & Angela Y. M. Leung & Grace W. K. Ho & Yan Li & Polly Hang-Mei Leung & Hua Li Wang & Catherine Xiao Rui Chen & Danny W. K. Tong & Judy Yuen-man Siu & Joseph T. F. Lau, 2022. "A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach to Developing and Testing Social and Behavioural Interventions to Reduce the Spread of SARS-CoV-2: A Protocol for the ‘ COPAR for COVID ’ Programme of," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-29, October.
    10. Daoust, Jean-François & Bélanger, Éric & Dassonneville, Ruth & Lachapelle, Erick & Nadeau, Richard & Becher, Michael & Brouard, Sylvain & Foucault, Martial & Hönnige, Christoph & Stegmueller, Daniel, 2020. "Face-Saving Strategies Increase Self-Reported Non-Compliance with COVID-19 Preventive Measures: Experimental Evidence from 12 Countries," SocArXiv tkrs7, Center for Open Science.
    11. J -F Daoust, 2020. "Elderly people and responses to COVID-19 in 27 Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, July.
    12. Ambra Gentile & Marianna Alesi & Barbara Caci, 2022. "Protective and Educational Effects of Physical Activity Practice on Mental Health in Young Age during COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Mahdi Salehi & Grzegorz Zimon & Ali Reza Ghaderi & Zinab Ahmed Hasan, 2022. "The Relationship between Prevention and Panic from COVID-19, Ethical Principles, Life Expectancy, Anxiety, Depression and Stress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-24, May.
    14. Bonny Yee-Man Wong & Tai-Hing Lam & Agnes Yuen-Kwan Lai & Man Ping Wang & Sai-Yin Ho, 2021. "Perceived Benefits and Harms of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Well-Being and Their Sociodemographic Disparities in Hong Kong: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, January.
    15. Daniel Deimel & Christine Firk & Heino Stöver & Nicolas Hees & Norbert Scherbaum & Simon Fleißner, 2022. "Substance Use and Mental Health during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Germany: Results of a Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Cristina Bicchieri & Enrique Fatas & Abraham Aldama & Andrés Casas & Ishwari Deshpande & Mariagiulia Lauro & Cristina Parilli & Max Spohn & Paula Pereira & Ruiling Wen, 2021. "In science we (should) trust: Expectations and compliance across nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Akira Teramura & Yumi Kimura & Kosuke Hamada & Yasuko Ishimoto & Masato Kawamori, 2021. "COVID-19-Related Lifestyle Changes among Community-Dwelling Older Adult Day-Care Users: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Roxanne Kovacs & Maurice Dunaiski & Janne Tukiainen, 2023. "The effect of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility in Germany," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(4), pages 1027-1055, October.
    19. Kovacs, Roxanne & Dunaiski, Maurice & Tukiainen, Janne, 2020. "Compulsory face mask policies do not affect community mobility in Germany," EconStor Preprints 218945, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    20. Argang Ghadiri & David-Lennart Sturz & Hadjar Mohajerzad, 2022. "Associations between Health Education and Mental Health, Burnout, and Work Engagement by Application of Audiovisual Stimulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-18, July.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2210.09094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.