“Don’t touch your face”---Effectiveness of a health communication intervention on reducing face-touching behaviors - 12/09/24

Doi : 10.1016/j.ajic.2024.08.021

Weijia Shi, PhD ^a,^⁎ , Michael Mackert, PhD ^a,^b,^c, Deena Kemp, PhD ^b, Andy J. King, PhD ^d, Yan Liu, PhD ^e, Mike Henson-García, MPH ^f, Jiahua Yang, PhD ^g, Lindsay M. Bouchacourt, PhD ^a, Alison G. Cahill, MD, MSCI ^h
^a Center for Health Communication, Moody College of Communication & Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
^b Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, Moody College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
^c Department of Population Health, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
^d Department of Communication, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
^e School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
^f Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences, UTHealth Science Center School of Public Health, Dallas, TX
^g Public Health Division, New Mexico Department of Health, Albuquerque, NM
^h Department of Women’s Health, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

^⁎Address correspondence to Weijia Shi, PhD, Center for Health Communication, Moody College of Communication & Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin.Center for Health Communication, Moody College of Communication & Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin

Sous presse. Épreuves corrigées par l'auteur. Disponible en ligne depuis le Thursday 12 September 2024

Résumé

Background

Given the risk of infection through face-touching behaviors, investigators have called for more research into the development of interventions to reduce the frequency of face-touching. The current study aims to test the effectiveness of messages on reducing face-touching behaviors.

Methods

Nine different messages that highlighted the risk of face-touching were developed. Study 1, an online survey-experiment with a national sample of US adults (N = 998), examined message-, risk perceptions, and face-touching-related behavioral intentions. The most promising messages identified in study 1 were then tested in study 2, a follow-up behavioral observation study with a class of undergraduate students. Students’ face-touching behaviors were observed during a 4-week period when intervention versus control messages were displayed in the classroom.

Results

Four messages performed better in study 1, 2 of which were selected to test the actual message effectiveness in study 2. Study 2 results showed that on average, students touched their faces less frequently when a “Don’t touch your face” message was present, although such decrease was not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Having reminder messages of “Don’t touch your face” in public spaces hold the potential to be a low-cost, effective strategy to reduce face-touching behaviors.

Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.

Key Words : Message effectiveness, Health campaign, Infection control

Plan

Background

Study 1: A survey-experiment study

Study 2: A behavioral observation study

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

	Conflicts of interest: None to report.
	Funding/support: The project was funded by an anonymous donor to the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. The donor, department, and the university had no input into the design or analysis of the current study.