"Don't touch your face"-Effectiveness of a health communication intervention on reducing face-touching behaviors

Background: Given the risk of infection through face-touching behaviors, investigators have called for more research into the development of interventions to reduce the frequency of face-touching. The current study aims to test the effectiveness of messages on reducing face-touching behaviors. Methods: Nine different messages that highlighted the risk of face-touching were developed. Study 1, an online survey-experiment with a national sample of US adults (N = 998), examined message-, risk perceptions, and face-touching-related behavioral intentions. The most promising messages identified in study 1 were then tested in study 2, a follow-up behavioral observation study with a class of undergraduate students. Students' face-touching behaviors were observed during a 4-week period when intervention versus control messages were displayed in the classroom. Results: Four messages performed better in study 1, 2 of which were selected to test the actual message effectiveness in study 2. Study 2 results showed that on average, students touched their faces less frequently when a "Don't touch your face" message was present, although such decrease was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Having reminder messages of "Don't touch your face" in public spaces hold the potential to be a low-cost, effective strategy to reduce face-touching behaviors. (c) 2024 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.