Using Behavioral Nudges to Improve Preventive Health Behaviors & Limit COVID-19 Spread

Using behavior change tactics to reduce the spread of COVID?19 in Wisconsin

Full Project Name:Using Behavioral Nudges to Improve Preventive Health Behaviors that Limit COVID-19 SpreadPrincipal Investigator:Nicholas Young, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and Center for Advancing Population ScienceCo-Investigator:Sanjah Bhandari, MD, Medicine; Neel Mansukhani, MD, Surgery; Anna Palatnik, MD, OBGYNAward Amount:$144,086.00

Award Date

April2020

Project Duration:6 months

Project Description Narrative:

Public health campaigns to help control the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin have focused on critical prevention behaviors like social distancing and regular hand washing. Unfortunately, increasing infection rates suggest that these initiatives have not been completely effective to date. Hand washing compliance rates are often alarmingly poor, with global estimates as low as 19%. Hand washing has also become more difficult due to reduced availability of proper hygiene materials like hand soap and paper towels at Wisconsin retailers.

This project aims to improve hand hygiene using simple, inexpensive, and powerful behavior change intervention tactics to reduce the chances of COVID? 19 spreading to patients at high risk for serious illness or medical complications across Wisconsin communities.

Outcomes & Lessons Learned:

Rapidly established comprehensive protocols, database collection and management, and personnel partnerships to create infrastructure for project
Identified high-risk patients across targeted medical specialties to enroll in project, testing the use of behavioral nudges to deliberately cue a specific number of hand washings daily in order to prevent the spread of illness and disease
Gathered promising preliminary data indicating that tested interventions can yield improved hand hygiene
Initiated more comprehensive data analysis, beginning work to disseminate project findings to clinical partners to inform recommendations for health and safety of patients in clinical or other settings