Trial reportJMIR mHealth and uHealth2025
Promoting Hand Hygiene During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial of the Optimized Soapp+ App.
Trial report in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04830761 (Behaviour Change in Context to Contain the Spread of COVID-19), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Behaviour Change in Context to Contain the Spread of COVID-19
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Investigating the approach of using behavior change techniques in the field of mobile applications: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Theory-based promotion of diet and transportation behavior change to reduce carbon footprint among students: Randomized parallel trial of the GROW app.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe adoption of protective behaviors represents a crucial measure to counter the spread of infectious diseases. The development of effective behavior change techniques therefore emerged as a public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, but randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing such interventions during the pandemic were scarce. We conducted a Multiphase Optimization Strategy to develop, optimize, and evaluate a smartphone app, Soapp+, to promote hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic.
objectiveThis RCT aims to evaluate the efficacy of the Soapp+ app (intervention group) targeting motivation and habit compared to a simplified version of the app mainly delivering hand hygiene information (active control group). We hypothesize that, compared to the control group, the intervention group will show greater improvements in hand hygiene behavior and behavioral determinants post intervention and at a 6-month follow-up.
methodsWe conducted an RCT from March 2022 to April 2023, recruiting 193 adults living in Switzerland online. Following baseline assessment, the intervention lasted 32 days, followed by a postintervention assessment and a 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome was the change in hand hygiene behavior from pre- to postintervention and preintervention to follow-up. Hand hygiene was assessed with electronic diaries. The intervention group received content incorporating various behavior change techniques designed to address key motivational and volitional determinants of hand hygiene behavior (eg, skills, knowledge, intention, attitudes toward hand hygiene, risk perception, outcome expectancies, self-efficacy, action planning, coping planning, action control, habit). In contrast, the active control group was exposed to behavior change techniques targeting only a subset of these determinants (ie, skills, knowledge, and intention). The delivery of the intervention content was fully automated. Group differences were tested using an intention-to-treat approach with the nonparametric Wilcoxon rank sum test.
resultsOf the 193 randomized participants, 146 completed the first hand hygiene diary preintervention and were included in the main analysis. The mean age was 41 (SD 17) years, and 69.2% (n=101) were women. The main analysis revealed significant superiority of the intervention compared to controls in the change in hand hygiene pre-post intervention (W=2034; P<.04; effect size r=0.17) and between preintervention and follow-up (W=2005; P<.03; effect size r=0.18). Regarding behavioral determinants, the change in coping planning pre-post intervention (W=3840; P=.03, effect size r=0.16) was significantly greater in the intervention group using Soapp+ compared to controls.
conclusionsSoapp+ was developed through a rigorous experimental method during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The RCT provided evidence for the efficacy of Soapp+ to promote hand hygiene in the context of a pandemic.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04830761; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04830761.
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