Socio-psychological determinants of scabies contact notification among Dutch students: A qualitative study

Recently, the incidence of scabies in the Netherlands increased, especially among young adults. Students are particularly at higher risk of scabies infection, as they often live close together and have many contacts. To prevent ongoing transmission and enhance timely treatment, it is important for scabies patients to notify their contacts. We held in-depth semi-structured interviews with Dutch students who experienced scabies in the past year (n = 15). We investigated to what extent they notify their contacts correctly and timely, and what socio-psychological factors influence their contact notification (CN). Thematic analysis was used to analyze verbatim transcripts. The results showed that most participants seemed to correctly notify their contacts, except for casual bedpartners who were often not contacted or not in time. Individual factors that seemed to influence this behavior were knowledge and awareness regarding CN, perceived risk of transmission, attitude towards CN, emotions involved with CN, quality of relationship with the contact, and intention for CN in the future. Important environmental factors were perceived social norm, received response to notification and disclosure, and experienced stigma. There is a need to develop interventions to enhance CN among students, focusing on knowledge and awareness regarding CN, emotions involved with CN, perceived descriptive norms, and experienced stigma.