Awareness of hand hygiene
This study was conducted to examine the awareness and practices of hand hygiene within public communities in Jordan and the UAE, with an aim to provide insights for effective pandemic prevention strategies. The data highlights significant findings in hand hygiene awareness, informed by WHO’s preventive guidelines. The study aims to provide governmental and non-governmental authorities in both countries with evidence on hand hygiene awareness and practices, supporting efforts to develop educational campaigns that can reduce infection rates and promote health within both communities. These findings align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which focuses on promoting health and well-being.
The rapid global spread of COVID-19 posed a serious health threat. In response, government and non-government organizations launched numerous virtual campaigns during lockdowns to increase COVID-19 awareness [36, 37]. In this study, participants predominantly used social media platforms and internet search engines for information on COVID-19, while a less percentage of the study population got information from reliable sources such as government health departments or the WHO. This preference poses challenges, as unverified online information can spread misinformation [38, 39]. The study suggests that future educational and awareness campaigns, both virtual and in-person, could benefit from collaboration with academic institutions and public health agencies to ensure accurate, verified information reaches various communities and broader public.
Both study populations showed moderate level of hand hygiene awareness where the study population in the UAE (mean score: 7.48 ± 1.706) exhibited a slightly higher awareness level compared to Jordan (mean score: 6.96 ± 1.702). Participants in both Jordan and the UAE demonstrated highest awareness level regarding COVID-19 transmission through poor hand hygiene, which is consistent with a previous study by Alwan et al. (2024) [23]. However, poor-to-average awareness was detected in numerous aspects associated with the misconceptions of hand hygiene and proper handwashing techniques as compared to the Lebanese study [23]. For example, a notable area of misconception in KSA was the low awareness of the alcohol concentration utilized for effective disinfection of hand sanitizers. Public communities were aware that antibacterial soaps would be more effective than plain soap and water [40]. Alarmingly, a very low percentage of participants were aware that bare hand skin should not be disinfected via bleach, other household disinfectants, or ultraviolet lamps where these techniques may cause damage of skin tissues [37]. All the above-mentioned misconceptions highlight the potential risks of misinformation which could raise an additional concern during the spread of COVID-19.
Similar to a study conducted in Saudi Arabia by Al-Hanawi et al. (2020) [41], the findings showed no statistical association between awareness and gender in both countries. This consistency may be explained by the fact that public health campaigns targeting COVID-19 in these countries may have addressed both genders simultaneously, reducing gender disparities in health education.
Unlike UAE, where awareness and age variable were not statistically significant, elderly population in Jordan demonstrated slightly higher awareness levels than young participants [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49]. This finding is consistent with other literature studies [23, 40, 41] where older individuals had stronger understanding of public health guidelines. Therefore, the higher awareness could be attributed to increased vulnerability to severe outcomes from COVID-19, which may have led them to prioritize learning about preventive measures [28, 42]. Similar to other literature studies [23, 41], the emirate/governorate was not an associated variable in this study thus confirming the uniformity of health education campaigns among the public community regardless of the geographical location.
The statistical association of awareness and education was highlighted in this study where highly educated participants recorded higher awareness levels compared to those with only a high school education in Jordan [43]. This finding is consistent with previous studies by [23, 41, 44, 45]. This finding could be explained by the fact that individuals with advanced education levels are more likely to access diverse information sources to get a deeper understanding of hygiene awareness [23]. However, education variable had no statistical association with awareness levels in the UAE.
Practice of hand hygiene
Focusing on practices towards COVID-19, the study populations in Jordan and UAE reported that both males and females primarily used soap and water, with females showing significantly higher adherence to more frequent usage. While water-only was common among both genders, ABHR was a secondary choice, with males in Jordan showing a higher reliance on ABHR than females. These results are likely due to females’ generally lower tolerance for uncleanliness and greater concern for infection prevention, which may encourage more consistent hygiene habits [28, 46]. Surprisingly, while older age groups showed higher levels of hand hygiene awareness, there was no statistical association between practices and age groups in both study populations. This finding could be explained by the fact that awareness campaigns target al.l public communities to reinforce the importance of consistent hygiene habits regardless of the age variation. Similar to studies published in India [28], data reveals that individuals with higher education levels reported more frequent handwashing with soap and water than those with lower education levels. These findings suggest that higher education may foster greater awareness and adherence to hand hygiene practices, likely due to increased access to health information and a more profound awareness and understanding of disease prevention [28].
Furthermore, the results of the data collected reported that in high-risk situations, both populations most frequently used soap and water for hand hygiene, with ABHR as a secondary choice. This trend aligns with previous studies in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia [23, 33, 47,48,49] which reported that handwashing with soap and water was the predominant practice among both study populations using the nine key actions, particularly before meals, after meals, following toileting, when hands were visibly dirty, and after waste disposal. On the other hand, ABHR was used more frequently in certain situations such as when touching surfaces, or caring for elderly patients, after sneezing or coughing and handshaking [23, 33, 47, 50,51,52]. Overall, the study population showed high compliance of hand hygiene recommendations of CDC to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
Limitations
This study protocol has several limitations. The self-responding nature of the tool used may introduce bias, and the uneven distribution of the study population, with a dominant number of females and an imbalanced age range. To overcome this limitation, participants were recruited through social media platforms, and the study tool was also distributed via research offices and centers at academic institutions in Jordan and the UAE. Electronic data collection may weaken the randomness of the sampling, especially because the lack of familiarity with the electronic devices and/or social media platforms is expected among the community. As a result, the age distribution of the sample population was affected by the electronic procedure of data collection where most of the participants were young participants (aged 18–29) who are expected to have more accessibility to the social media platforms. Based on the above findings and limitations, community-based interventions and research-based assessments are recommended to ensure comprehensive compliance with hand hygiene guidelines across public, academic, and occupational communities in Jordan and the UAE.
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