  Education plays a critical role on promoting preventive behaviours against
the spread of pandemics. In Japan, hand-washing education in primary schools
was positively correlated with preventive behaviours against COVID-19
transmission for adults in 2020 during the early stages of COVID-19 [1]. The
following year, the Tokyo Olympics were held in Japan, and a state of emergency
was declared several times. Public perceptions of and risks associated with the
pandemic changed drastically with the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines. We
re-examine whether effect of hand-washing education on preventive behaviours
persisted by covering a longer period of the COVID-19 pandemic than previous
studies. 26 surveys were conducted nearly once a month for 30 months from March
2020 (the early stage of COVID-19) to September 2022 in Japan. By corresponding
with the same individuals across surveys, we comprehensively gathered data on
preventive behaviours during this period. In addition, we asked about
hand-washing education they had received in their primary school. We used the
data to investigate how and the degree to which school education is associated
with pandemic mitigating preventive behaviours. We found that hand-washing
education in primary school is positively associated with behaviours such as
hand washing and mask wearing as a COVID-19 preventive measure, but not related
to staying at home. We observed a statistically significant difference in hand
washing between adults who received childhood hand-washing education and those
who did not. This difference persisted throughout the study period. In
comparison, the difference in mask wearing between the two groups was smaller,
but still statistically significant. Furthermore, there was no difference in
staying at home between them.
