WHØ you gonna call? Exploring factors influencing contact notification for scabies among students in the Netherlands using a cross sectional design

Scabies incidence increased among young adults in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. Various measures, including contact notification (CN), are recommended to control scabies outbreaks. However, it is unclear to what extent young adults, including students, correctly follow these recommendations and which factors influence their behaviour. This paper presents the findings of a study, examining socio-psychological factors influencing students’ intention to notify their contacts following a scabies diagnosis. A cross sectional online survey was conducted among higher education students in the Netherlands using diverse recruitment strategies. The questionnaire was developed based on a literature review on determinants of CN, expert consultation, and heath behaviour theories. It included questions on background characteristics, scabies experience and socio-psychological determinants such as knowledge, perceived infectiousness, attitude, emotions, stigma, response-efficacy, self-efficacy and social norms. The final sample consisted of N = 309 participants (64% female, M age = 21.7 years ( SD = 1.8, range 18–27)). Univariate (Pearson correlation) and multivariate (linear regression) analyses were conducted to identify the most important psychosocial correlates of the intention to notify scabies contacts. In the univariate analyses, small to moderate negative associations were observed for stigma (anticipated and personalized), negative self-image, and the number of lifetime scabies episodes ( r ’s > 0.12, p ’s < 0.001). Small to moderate positive associations were observed for response efficacy, self-efficacy, descriptive norm, having received a contact notification, and number of contacts to notify ( r ’s > 0.12, p < .001). Strong associations were shown for previous contact notification behaviour, attitude, and injunctive norm ( r ’s > 0.44, p ’s < 0.001). In the multivariate analyses, the final model showed that attitude, injunctive norm and previous contact notification behaviour had the strongest positive associations with CN intention ( β ’s > 0.21, p ’s < 0.001), while positive emotions showed a weaker positive association ( β = 0.10, p < .05). Our findings suggest that interventions aiming to stimulate CN among students with scabies, should primarily target attitudes and injunctive norms. Implementing such interventions to incoming students at the start of the academic year may help establish CN as a social norm and contribute to reducing scabies transmission.