PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

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

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

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260287
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 11
p. e0260287

Abstract

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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.