Report on Behavior Change Intervention for Hand Washing Practices

This report provides an in-depth analysis of a hand washing intervention designed to promote positive health behaviors. The introduction highlights the public health relevance of hand hygiene, particularly in the context of diseases like COVID-19. The report details the design of a behavior change intervention, including defining goals, identifying target groups, and implementing strategies based on the transtheoretical model and Lewin's theory of change. Various channels such as radio, TV and social media will be used to deliver the message. The intervention focuses on changing individual behaviors to improve hygiene and physical health, especially in rural areas of Nigeria. The report also outlines methods for evaluating the intervention's success, including measuring outcomes, quantifying the impact of the intervention, and conducting process evaluations to assess the implementation phases. The overall focus is on influencing the physical and social aspects of health through improved hand hygiene practices and the importance of hand hygiene and wellness.

Behaviour change in public
health
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Issue and public health relevance of issue...................................................................................3
Design a behaviour change intervention......................................................................................3
How results are evaluated............................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4
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INTRODUCTION
There are several health issue which are being faced by people. This has led to creating a
negative impact on their health. Moreover, it is important to change behaviour of people towards
that so that they can live healthy lifestyle. In this report hand washing intervention will be
described. Also, how evaluation of results will be done is discussed as well.
Issue and public health relevance of issue
In context of public health professions, who have constantly battling against hand foot
disease, covid 19. this kind of issue is related to the virus that can get onto hands after people
touch any object or go to toilet, etc. It became obvious thing after handling raw meat that have
invisible amount of animal poop on them (Sodergren, 2018). These are relevance of issue in
public health condition or situation. These are major health related issues occurred because of
unhygienic condition. The people face certain kind of health issue or problem.
In recently, public health is one of the important aspect because of aiding and prolonging
life. Through the prevention of health issues, individual can live for more years. Nowadays,
Covid-19 has been spreading across the global world so that it would require to focus on the
current health condition of people. It ensures that everyone is aware of health hazards through
campaigns, program through influencing government guideline or policies. In this way, it has
been constantly striving to close the connection between individual people where they can focus
on hand washing, wearing masks etc. these are helping for individual people to protect from
coronavirus.
Hand washing how changing behaviour is an important component of making a positive impact.
During COVID-19, individual people can understand the need for hand washing because
it helps to prevent for health related risks (Sodergren, 2018). Hand washing is always motivated
because of their advantage or benefits, especially outbreak when information about transmission
and health consequences which are shared on daily basis. The promotion of hand washing is
continuously changing the behaviour of individual people and understand the need or
requirement.
In current scenario, the change behaviour is one of the important component of making a
positive impact on health condition. Hand washing is influenced by wide range of social,
physical and cognitive determinants. In order to change the behavior of people on regular basis.
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Different kind of hygiene promotion programmes as part of covid-19 response need to consider
range of all possible determinants in order to effectively overcome behavioral barriers.
According to the behavioural framework, it has been argued that it is important for identifying
behavioral factors in a specific target population and based on the results, design intervention to
change them. Many consumers have shown a positive behaviour towards hand washing and
always try to wash their hand properly. If hand-washing facilities and products are lacking, then
hygiene messaging is likely to be ineffective. At that time, the positive behavior of people
towards creative designed hygiene promotion activities changes (Hunter, and Kee, 2017). It is
helping to reduce the risk or threat of health issues. There are large number of people who move
towards hand washing because they have influenced with hand washing promotional activities
and develop own positive behavior.
There are certain psychological principles of health which can be applied. In this it state
that health psychology focus on how biological, social and psychological factors influence health
and illness.
Design a behaviour change intervention
It is necessary to design a change intervention so that it becomes easy to implement
concept of hand hygiene. Moreover, it gives a proper framework on how behaviour change needs
to be implemented. In addition, there are certain steps which is to be followed in it. Similarly, for
present hand hygiene the change intervention designed is explained as below:
Define goals- here, the main goal is to implement hand washing practice. The main purpose is to
improve the hygiene of people and also physical health. In this another objective is to maintain
hand hygiene and cleanliness.
Target group – in this it has been analysed that in rural areas of Nigeria the people are not able to
maintain hand hygiene. This has highly impacted on their physical health. Thus, for prevent
behaviour change intervention target people will be people living in rural areas of Nigeria. The
main motive behind change in behaviour of people is that hand hygiene to maintain cleanliness
(West, and Amlôt, 2020).
Strategy based on research – there is need to apply a strategy so that it becomes easy to
implement the change intervention. The strategy also provides a direction on how change needs
to be applied. So, behaviour change model is applied in it.
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The transtheoretical model – the model focus on decision making of individual and intentional
change. It state that people do not change behaviour quickly but it comes with change in habits.
Hence, it is a cyclic process in which there are 6 stages that is as follows :
Precontemplation - In this, people do not intend to take action in the foreseeable future. The are
unaware that their behavior is problematic or produces negative consequences.
Contemplation - here, people are intending to start the healthy behavior in the foreseeable future.
People recognize that their behavior may be problematic. Even with this recognition, people may
still feel ambivalent toward changing their behavior.
Preparation – the people start to take small steps toward the behavior change, and they believe
changing their behavior can lead to a healthier life.
Action - the people have recently changed their behavior and intend to keep moving forward
with that behavior change.
Maintenance - In this stage, people have sustained their behavior change for a while and intend
to maintain the behavior change going forward.
Termination - In this, people have no desire to return to their unhealthy behaviors and are sure
they will not relapse (Lee, and Lo, 2021).
Also, there will be various channels that is used to deliver message of people. For
example- radio, TV, newspaper, social media, etc. are some channels used to deliver message of
hand washing to people.
Develop theory of change and determine indicator of success
There are certain theory of change which can be applied as well. This will help in
changing behaviour of people. So, there Lewin theory of change is applied. In that all 3 steps are
executed in that. Besides that, there are various indicator of success as well that will be included.
Through this indicator it will be easy to find out whether change behaviour intervention is
successful or not. Thus, indicator of success are :
Number of healthy people
Number of times people wash hands
Sell of hand sanitizer
Record indicator of success
There is need to record indicator of success. This allows in ensuring that change
behaviour is successful or not. Apart from it, changes can be made in intervention in order to
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ensure that it is successful. Moreover, it can be evaluated that success indicators are properly
recorded and relevant data is obtained from it. Similarly, in present change behaviour the success
indicator will be recorded. In that data and info will be gathered from people about hand
washing.
Evaluation of goals
It is necessary to evaluate goals and objectives so that it can be stated whether behaviour
change intervention is successful or not and goals are achieved or not. If not then changes are
made into plan. The evaluation also helps in finding out weak areas.
Develop which aspect of health can be influenced by individual behaviour
It can be analysed that there will be a great influence of hand washing on health of
people. Moreover, as there are five aspect of health that is social, physical, emotional,
intellectual and spiritual (Rhodes, McEwan, and Rebar, 2019). Thus, this health behaviour will
influence the physical and social aspect of health of people. This can be said because washing of
hand will help in following clean hygiene. Also, it will help in taking precaution of all clean and
hygiene. Moreover, individual behaviour will change towards hand hygiene. So, if hands are
washed regularly and cleanliness is maintained then it will impact on physical health aspect. It is
because hand hygiene comes in physical health. With that overall physical health is maintained.
In addition, this will also led to eating well and maintaining hygiene. Therefore, a proper hygiene
and wellness will be maintained. by hand washing each individual will focus on maintaining
hygiene and eating well.
The physical aspect of health can be influenced by behaviour of others and environment
easily. In that it can be found that there are many factors which can influence on them. In this
due to environment the physical aspect can be influenced. The environment consists of place in
which people live, eat, sleep, work, etc. so, if there is no proper and safe environment then it can
highly influence on individual behaviour. This factors will led to ineffective hand hygiene,
wellness, cleanliness, etc. thus, it will also influence behaviour of others. They will not be able to
maintain and follow hand hygiene.
Physical aspect of health can also be influenced by behaviour of others as other people
might not follow hand hygiene in their routine behaviour. They might not follow practice of hand
washing in their routine. Furthermore, due to illiteracy as well others behaviour can be
influenced regarding hand washing (Rhodes, McEwan,. and Rebar, 2019). They are not aware
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about it and this can impact in negative way. Thus, they can also influence other easily about it.
In this way physical aspect of health can be influenced.
Evaluating results of Interventions
Evaluating results of intervention is concerned with measuring success of the
interventions. Evaluation enables to understand whether planned interventions have achieved
expected and standard results or not. There are different ways through which interventions can
be measured and ways are-
Measuring Outcome
Measuring outcomes involve measuring outcome of interventions and measuring results
of interventions once they are completed or while they are being completed. Outcome of the
interventions can be measured with two sets of outcome or results (Lorenzetti, Leatherman and
Flax, 2017). This means that outcome can be measured through condition before implementing
intervention, this is very important because here intervention is behavioural intervention and
measuring outcome through previous behaviour can help in evaluating success of intervention.
Another set of outcome is standard or objective outcomes or result for implementing
interventions. This is one set of data in which outcome are measured with outcome that are
expected from the intervention and also from the standards that were set for outcome of the
intervention. This involves measuring what was hand washing behaviour before intervention
with actual outcome and also with standard outcome for the intervention.
Quantifying impact of intervention
Quantifying impact of intervention includes that behaviour of individuals is quantified in
terms of numbers and in terms of numbers and then they are evaluated using statistical
approaches and methods. In this behaviour of individuals regarding hand washing needs to be
quantified and on that basis that outcome of interventions are measured. Along with this,
expected outcome of behaviour of hand washing also needs to be quantified which can be
measured with actual outcome of hand washing behaviour. This is one of the ways through
which results of behavioural intervention for hand washing can be measured (Medeiros and
et.al., 2018). Quantifying outcomes make it easy to measure and also creates valid basis for
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measurement and evaluation of interventions implemented for hand washing behaviour in
individuals.
Process Evaluation
This is also a way through which results can be evaluated for the interventions. Process
evaluation involves evaluating and measuring process through which interventions are
implemented. Process evaluation involves evaluating different phases of implementation of
intervention and in this different phases and their results are measured on the basis of planned
growth of implementation of intervention. In this where every phase of implementation is
successful as planned for implementation it gives indication that outcome of the intervention will
also be successfully achieved. In case any phase of implementation does not take place there is
possibility that outcomes can be less successful or not as standard objectives.
Impact Assessment
This is another way through which outcome of the intervention can be measured and
evaluated. Impact assessment involves assessing impact of interventions that were implemented
and this involves evaluating impact outcome with previous condition before implementation of
intervention (Mbakaya, Lee and Lee, 2017). This helps in identifying how successful
intervention has been in terms of impact of interventions. Regarding intervention implementation
while planning interventions it is determined what behavioural impact is expected so that lastly
expected impact can be assessed with actual impact of behavioural intervention.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarised that hand washing behaviour led to healthy lifestyle and impact in
positive way on physical aspect of heath. In that The transtheoretical model of health is applied.
Also, success records will be measured to evaluate goals. The target people are those living in
rural areas of Nigeria.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Hunter, R.F.. and Kee, F., 2017. Social network interventions for health behaviour change: a
systematic review. The Lancet, 390, p.S47.
Lee, J.K., and Lo, Y.C., 2021. Institutional and behaviour-change interventions to support
COVID-19 public health measures: a review by the Lancet Commission Task Force on
public health measures to suppress the pandemic. International Health.
Lorenzetti, L.M., Leatherman, S. and Flax, V.L., 2017. Evaluating the effect of integrated
microfinance and health interventions: an updated review of the evidence. Health
policy and planning. 32(5). pp.732-756.
Mbakaya, B.C., Lee, P.H. and Lee, R.L., 2017. Hand hygiene intervention strategies to reduce
diarrhoea and respiratory infections among schoolchildren in developing countries: a
systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public
health. 14(4). p.371.
Medeiros, E.R.D and et.al., 2018. Studies evaluating of health interventions at schools: an
integrative literature review. Revista latino-americana de enfermagem. 26.
Rhodes, R.E., McEwan, D. and Rebar, A.L., 2019. Theories of physical activity behaviour
change: A history and synthesis of approaches. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 42,
pp.100-109.
Sodergren SC, Husson O, Rohde GE, Tomaszewska IM, Griffiths H, Pessing A, Yarom N,
Hooker L, Din A, Darlington AS, EORTC Quality of Life Group. Does age matter? A
comparison of health‐related quality of life issues of adolescents and young adults with
cancer. European journal of cancer care. 2018 Nov;27(6):e12980.
West, R., and Amlôt, R., 2020. Applying principles of behaviour change to reduce SARS-CoV-2
transmission. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(5), pp.451-459.
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