BRAC Institute of Governance and Development-Hygiene Behavioural Change and Coalition

Summary

In line with BRAC's overall goals to limit the COVID19 transmission, BRAC has constructed 1,000 handwashing stations coupled with other supports i.e. in-person demonstration, hygiene meetings, and soap distribution in Bangladesh. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of public handwashing stations (HWSs) on people's hygiene behavior and health outcomes in response to the COVID-19 situation. For this, at the household level, we will collect information on self-reported handwashing practices, income, health status, and HWSs along with other relevant socio-demographic variables in detail. In addition, we will observe people's mobility, mask usage at public places, and the HWSs usage; and will associate the observed HWSs usage with their self-reported health outcomes. This study will conduct surveys on households (7,760) and public (5,820) in 20 sub-districts of Mymensingh, Khulna, and Dhaka divisions.

Overall, this study is expected to directly benefit study participants and their communities by unveiling new evidence to inform BRAC's existing hygiene behavioral change programming in these communities. In addition, this information will yield future societal benefits by generating evidence on how to effectively implement and disseminate infrastructure and information that people can trust, believe, and use to form healthy hygiene habits.

Conditions

• Hygiene Practices and Knowledge

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Handwashing stations at the public places and no soap

BRAC has built 1000 handwashing stations in 20 sub-districts from 3 divisions (out of a total of 8 divisions), namely Dhaka, Mymensingh and Khulna, to increase the access of communities to handwashing facilities. In addition to these handwashing stations, there are other supports available in the intervention areas i.e. in-person demonstration, hygiene meetings, and soap distribution from BRAC. However, this group did not receive any soap from the research team.

BEHAVIORAL

No activities of the HBCC project and also no soap (Pure Control)

In these randomly selected villages, BRAC did not implement any activity of its HBCC project. Also, the research team did not distribute soap to these households

BEHAVIORAL

Soap distributed but no activities of the HBCC project

In these randomly selected villages, BRAC did not implement any activity of its HBCC project but the research team randomly selected this group for soap distribution.

BEHAVIORAL

HBCC project and Soap

These households belong to those villages where the HBCC project has been implemented and also received the soap from the research team.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Behavioural Insights Team

  collaborator OTHER

• Brac

  collaborator OTHER

• BRAC University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-09-19

Primary Completion

2021-05-31

Completion

2021-05-31

Countries

• Bangladesh

Study Locations