A comparison of the public's use of PPE and strategies to avoid contagion during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Australia and Germany

Moore, Kathleen A.; Bouchoucha, Stéphane L.; Buchwald, Petra

The SARS‐CoV‐2 or COVID‐19 pandemic has raised public awareness around disease protection. The aims in this study were to recruit participants from Australia and Germany to determine their use of personal protective equipment and COVID‐19 avoidance strategies using scales designed for this study. Principal components analysis with the Australian data revealed two factors in the Protection from Infection Scale, Self‐Care and Protective Behaviors, and a single factor in the Infection Avoidance Scale, with each scale demonstrating strong internal reliability. Data from German participants were used to confirm the scales' structure using confirmatory factor analysis. A comparison of the two data sets data revealed that Australian participants scored higher overall on protection and avoidance strategies but at the item level there were several commonalities, including self‐care behaviors people adopted to avoid contracting COVID‐19. With no foreseeable end to this pandemic, it is important that follow‐up studies ascertain whether the public continues to adopt high levels of PPE use and follows government advice or if pandemic fatigue sets in.