Personal and Household Hygiene Measures for Preventing Upper Respiratory Tract Infections among Children: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Parental Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices.

Personal and household hygiene measures are important for preventing upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and other infectious diseases, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). An online survey recruited 414 eligible parents in Hong Kong to study their hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) regarding the prevention of URTIs among their children. The average knowledge score was high (10.2/12.0), but some misconceptions were identified. The majority of the participants agreed that good personal hygiene (93.5%) and good environmental hygiene (92.8%) can prevent URTIs. The average score for hand hygiene practices was high (3.78/4.00), but only 56.8% of the parents always performed hand hygiene before touching their mouths, noses, or eyes. In terms of environmental hygiene, only some household items were disinfected with disinfectants (door handles in 69.8% of the households, toilet seats in 60.4% of the households, the floor in 42.8% of the households, dining chairs in 24.2% of the households, and dining tables in 20.5% of the households). A higher knowledge score was associated with parents having tertiary educational levels or above, working as healthcare professionals, living in private residential flats or staff quarters, or having household incomes of HKD 70,000 or above. The results of multiple regression analyses also indicated that parents who were healthcare professionals and with higher household income had a better parental knowledge of hygiene measures after adjusting the attitude score. For hand hygiene, parents who achieved higher attitude scores obtained higher practice scores. Under the fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, there were some misconceptions regarding hygiene among parents. Any health promotion program should target parents regarding taking proper personal and household hygienic measures, especially for those who had relatively lower socio-economic status and/or from a non-healthcare background. Motivating attitudes toward hand hygiene can lead to better practices.

Perceived Risk and Protection From Infection and Depressive Symptoms Among Healthcare Workers in Mainland China and Hong Kong During COVID-19.

Psychological health among healthcare workers (HCWs) has become a major concern since the COVID-19 outbreak. HCWs perceived risks of contracting COVID-19, in relation to depression were investigated. It was hypothesized that perceived high risk of contracting COVID-19 (close contact with cases, inadequate provision of personal protective equipment, insufficient infection control training, and presence of symptoms) would be significant predictors of depression. Our cross-sectional survey was completed by HCWs across three regions (Hubei, Guangdong, Hong Kong) between March 9 to April 9 2020 using convenience sampling. Depression was assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Prevalence of depression was 50.4% (95% CI: 44.5-56.2), 15.1% (10.1-21.9) and 12.9% (10.3-16.2) for HCWs in Hong Kong, Hubei and Guangdong, respectively. The strongest significant risk factors for depression, after adjustment, were HCWs who reported the greatest extent of feeling susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and those who reported the greatest difficulty obtaining face masks. HCWs whose family/peers greatly encouraged face mask use had lower prevalence of depression. Access to adequate supplies of personal protective equipment is essential for the psychological health of HCWs working in stressful environments, through potentially easing their perceptions of vulnerability to COVID-19.