Valerie Curtis¹, Beth Scott¹, and Kristof Bostoen². (1) London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom, (2) Disease Controle and Vector Biology Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom, +44 7927 4239, kristof.bostoen@lshtm.ac.uk

Handwashing with soap is one of the most promising interventions for public health, with the potential to save many lives from respiratory and diarrhoeal infections in developing countries. Large-scale national programmes to promote handwashing are needed. In collaboration with the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap we have developed a methodology for designing high-impact hand washing promotion programmes. This involves detailed formative research into the motivations, barriers and habits of target audiences. It incorporates theory and practice from consumer science, epidemiology and evolutionary psychology. We argue that an agent seeking to change behaviour is likely to succeed only if they tap into evolved behavioural drives such as a desire for social status, to nurture offspring, to remove contamination, or to satisfy sexual urges. Strategies to transform habitual behaviour should not necessarily target “rational,” conscious decision-making, but make use of these regular and ancient features of the human brain. Here we present the results of behavioural studies in three countries and show how the results inform large-scale handwash promotion campaigns.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain a solid understanding of the three most important interventions to prevent childhood diarrhea and the programmatic challenges associated with their implementation.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.