Awareness and Performance towards Proper Use of Disinfectants to Prevent COVID-19: The Case of Iran

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the awareness and performance of Qom citizens towards using disinfectants and compared its relationship with geographical distribution of COVID-19 outbreak in Qom, Iran. The study was conducted by a researcher-made questionnaire during April and May, 2020. COVID-19 incidence data for each district of city was obtained from health department of Qom province. Data were analyzed using Excel, SPSS and ArcView (GIS) softwares. It was found that the highest level of citizens’ awareness (52%) was in the weak range while their performance (56%) was in the good range. According to Spearman’s correlation analysis, there was a strong correlation (rho 0.95) between the total mean of awareness and performance (p < 0.01). The highest incidence rate of COVID-19 was in district 7 which had the lowest mean score in both awareness and performance. In addition, the results of ANOVA (LSD—least significant difference) showed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between district 7—with lower mean scores in awareness and performance—and other districts. Overall, it is concluded that citizens’ awareness level was lower than that of their performance. This conclusion not only calls for more training programs to be implemented in public places, schools, universities and governmental offices, but it also necessitates maintaining a proper and timely training about using disinfectants.

Evaluation of awareness and performance towards COVID-related disinfectant use among the university communities in Lebanon

“…Similar to other studies [ 21 , 28 , 29 , 39 ], females recorded higher performance scores than males. The finding may be explained by the fact that women are primarily responsible for taking care of the home and using disinfectants to maintain their own and their families' health [ 40 ].…”

“…The validated questionnaire that was used, has been adapted from the Iranian study of disinfectants (supporting information) [ 29 ]. The profile section of the questionnaire included eight items about age, sex, educational level, province, university status (student, staff, or faculty), university department, study program, and experience with SARS-CoV-2 infection.…”

“…Almost half of the sample population in this study reported skin irritation after the use of hand sanitizers (gel, liquid, and wet wipes). On the other hand, an Iranian study investigated public awareness and performance regarding the safe use of disinfectants [ 29 ]. They found that 52% of the participants had a weak level of awareness while 56% had a good level of performance.…”

Health impact assessment and evaluation of economic costs attributed to PM2.5 air pollution using BenMAP-CE

“…(as shown in Fig. 1 ) (Safari et al 2021 ); it is located in the central region of Iran, 130 km to the southwest of Tehran. It has a dry and semi-dry climate with an annual rainfall of 161 mm (Khazaei et al 2013 ; Fahiminia et al 2016 ; Fouladi-Fard et al 2018b ).…”

Health risk assessment of lead pollution from air and soil in the biggest special economic zone of Iran

“…This study was carried out in Salafchegan city, a special economic zone, located in the central part of Qom province, Iran. Located in the central part of Iran, Qom is a province that's known for being the smallest in the country and having a semi-arid climate [28][29][30] . The area of the Salafchegan district is 55.4 km 2 31 .…”