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. 2021 Nov 22;16(11):e0260287.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260287. eCollection 2021.

Protective measures are associated with the reduction of transmission of COVID-19 in Bangladesh: A nationwide cross-sectional study

Nadim Sharif  1 , Khalid J Alzahrani  2 , Shamsun Nahar Ahmed  1 , Rubayet Rayhan Opu  1 , Nayan Ahmed  1 , Aeken Talukder  1 , Raju Nunia  1 , Mysha Samiha Chowdhury  1 , Israt Jahan Nodi  1 , Tama Saha  1 , Ming Zhang  3 , Shuvra Kanti Dey  1
Affiliations

Protective measures are associated with the reduction of transmission of COVID-19 in Bangladesh: A nationwide cross-sectional study

Nadim Sharif et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become a major public health issue globally. Preventive health measures against COVID-19 can reduce the health burden significantly by containing the transmission. A few research have been undertaken on the effectiveness of preventive strategies such as mask use, hand washing, and keeping social distance in preventing COVID-19 transmission. The main aim of this study was to determine the association of the preventive measures with the reduction of transmission of COVID-19 among people. Data was collected during January 06, 2021 to May 10, 2021 from 1690 participants in Bangladesh. A validated questionnaire was used to collect both the online and offline data. Chi-square test and logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association among the variables. The prevalence of COVID-19 was 11.5% (195 of 1690) among the population. Age, gender, occupation and monthly income of the participants were significantly associated with the likelihood of following the preventive measures. The risk of infection and death reduced significantly among the participants following preventive measures (p = .001). The odds of incidence was lower among the participants using masks properly (OR: 0.02, 95% CI: 0.01-0.43), maintaining social distances (OR: 0.04, 95% CI: 0.01-0.33), avoiding crowded places (OR: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.02-0.19) and hand shaking (OR: 0.17, 95% CI: 0.09-0.41). This study suggests that preventive health measures are significantly associated with the reduction of the risk of infection of COVID-19. Findings from this study will help the policymakers to take appropriate steps to curb the health burden of COVID-19.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Frequency distribution of the study participants and prevalence of COVID-19 in Bangladesh.
Fig 2
Fig 2
A. Trends of the participants to use different types of face masks, B. Gender distribution of the practices of using different types of hand sanitizing media, C. Frequency distribution of the practices of hand cleaning among male and female in Bangladesh.
Fig 3
Fig 3
Distribution of COVID-19 A. Cases and B. Fatalities in Bangladesh during the second wave, C. Chronology of taken measures by the authorities against COVID-19 during the second wave.
Fig 4
Fig 4
Gender-wise changes of the frequency of A. Using face masks, B. Cleaning hands, C. Maintaining social distance and D. Avoiding hand shaking among the participants with the progress of the second wave.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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