Weakening personal protective behavior by Chinese university students after COVID-19 vaccination

Abstract

Personal protective behaviors and their dynamic change are known to play a major role in the community spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causal pathogen of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this study, a total of 3229 students in Chinese universities completed an online survey about their knowledge on transmission and personal protective behavior before and after COVID-19 vaccination. Of the respondents, 87.6% had been vaccinated. Most students believed that the large droplet (97.0%) and short-range airborne (89.3%) routes were the two most likely SARS-CoV-2 transmission routes, whereas only 24.1% considered long-range airborne transmission to be possible. Students who would be expected to possess better knowledge about virus transmission (e.g., students of medicine) reported better personal protective behaviors. Female students reported relatively better personal hygiene practices than male students, so did the confident students than their diffident peers. Students washed their hands on average of 5.76 times per day during the pandemic. Students at universities in southern regions washed their hands more frequently but paid less attention to indoor ventilation than did their northern counterparts. Interestingly, students who are fear of being infected had the bad personal hygiene. University students wore 22% less masks in public indoor environments after vaccination. Chinese university students weakened their personal protective behavior after vaccination and it may increase the potential risk of infection in the new waves of variant virus (e.g. delta).

The Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination in Changing the Adherence to Preventive Measures: Evidence from Italy

“…Compliance with two of the main COVID-19 public health measures, such as wearing a mask and hand washing, slightly increase after the second dose and decrease as a willingness after the booster dose, but what is more concerning is that maintaining physical distancing consistently decreased, from 90.1% to 74.7%, and hand hygiene was more used than physical distancing. In line with the present finding related to the decrease of the compliance, several previous studies using different samples of adults conducted within the past year found that the vaccination leads participants to reduce their compliance with public health measures [ 6 , 8 , 15 ]. Moreover, studies conducted in Italy showed a decrease over time in the behavior or in attitudes towards the adoption of the majority of the protective behaviors towards COVID-19 [ 13 , 16 ].…”

“…Vaccinated people and those who had received the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose, should continue to take all appropriate recommended precautions to protect themselves and others from the disease. To the best of our knowledge, the literature has neglected to investigate the change in plans to use preventive measures among those who had received a COVID-19 booster dose, and only a few studies have analyzed the compliance with the recommended prevention behaviors among vaccinated individuals [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Therefore, in this current epidemiological scenario, the present research offers an important contribution to the existing literature.…”

COVID-19 Vaccination Did Not Change the Personal Protective Behaviors of Healthcare Workers in China

“…China had largely managed to keep imported infections from causing major local outbreaks since the country successfully controlled the domestic spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the first phase of the pandemic. Our previous study showed that university students in China relaxed their personal protective behaviors after vaccination (41). In contrast, this study revealed that the personal protective behaviors of HCWs were sustained after vaccination.…”

Duration of protection of CoronaVac plus heterologous BNT162b2 booster in the Omicron period in Brazil

“…We observed a lower VE against symptomatic infection for individuals aged up to 59 years old compared to older individuals. We hypothesize this can be related to changes in behavior post-booster-vaccination, lowering the risk perception of getting COVID-19, and adherence to personal preventive measures 18 , 19 , mainly in the younger group 20 , 21 , increasing the risk of infection by the Omicron variant.…”