Area-level deprivation and handwashing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multilevel analysis on a nationwide survey in Korea

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the association between area deprivation level and performance of handwashing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korean adults. This study used data from the 2015 Population and Housing Census data to measure area deprivation level. The 2020 Korea Community Health Survey was used for all other variables, including hand hygiene behavior (August through November 2020). The association between area deprivation level and practice of handwashing behavior was examined using multilevel logistic regression analysis. The study population comprised 215,676 adults aged 19 years or above. Compared to the least area deprived group, the most deprived group was more likely to not wash hands after using the restroom (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.13–1.82), after coming home (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.43–2.39), and using soap (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.29–1.84). The findings suggest the importance of considering area deprivation in implementing policies that promote handwashing, particularly during a pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Area deprivation
• COVID-19
• Hand hygiene behavior
• handwashing
• multilevel analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request. The dataset is available on the Korea Community Health Survey website (https://chs.cdc.go.kr/chs/rdr/rdrInfoProcessMain.do).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2023.2212600.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (No. NRF-2022R1C1C2003977). These funding sources had no involvement in the study design, data analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.