Volume 29, Number 2—February 2023
Dispatch
(Mis)perception and Use of Unsterile Water in Home Medical Devices, PN View 360+ Survey, United States, August 20211
, Sarah A. Collier, Claire E. Burns-Lynch, Ashley A. Andújar, Katharine M. Benedict, Julia C. Haston, Catherine O. Hough, and Jennifer R. Cope
Table 1
Demographic characteristics of 1,004 respondents to question about potential uses for tap water, by response, in survey of knowledge about uses for tap water, PN 360 View 2021, United States*
| Characteristic | Do you agree or disagree with the following statements about US tap water? |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can be used for drinking | Can be used for rinsing contact lenses | Can be used for nasal rinsing | Can be used in respiratory devices† | Bacteria and other living things are not present in US tap water | |
| I don’t know |
38 |
140 |
157 |
194 |
119 |
| General population |
81 (78‒83) |
50 (47‒54) |
62 (59‒66) |
42 (38‒45) |
33 (30‒36) |
| Sex | |||||
| F | 77 (73‒81) | 43 (38‒48) | 58 (52‒63) | 37 (32‒42 | 24 (20‒28) |
| M | 84 (81‒88) | 57 (52‒62) | 67 (62,72) | 46 (41‒51) | 42 (37‒47) |
| p value |
0.0090 |
0.0002 |
0.0073 |
0.0153 |
<0.0001 |
| Race | |||||
| Black or African American | 76 (68‒84) | 47 (37‒57) | 58 (48,68) | 48 (37‒58) | 48 (38‒58) |
| Other‡ | 69 (59‒78) | 46 (35‒57) | 57 (46,68) | 35 (24‒45) | 26 (17‒35) |
| p value |
0.0013 |
0.5781 |
0.2917 |
0.2145 |
0.0039 |
| Ethnicity | |||||
| Hispanic§ | 67 (58‒76) | 48 (38‒58) | 60 (51,70) | 38 (28‒48) | 31 (22‒40) |
| Non-Hispanic | 83 (81‒86) | 50 (47‒54) | 63 (59,66) | 42 (38‒46) | 33 (30‒37) |
| p value | <0.0001 | 0.7034 | 0.6528 | 0.4189 | 0.6011 |
| Age, y | |||||
| 18–34 | 73 (68‒79) | 50 (44‒56) | 65 (59,71) | 45 (38‒52) | 38 (31‒44) |
| 35–54 | 80 (75‒85) | 52 (46‒58) | 58 (52,64) | 37 (31‒43) | 35 (29‒40) |
| >55 | 86 (82‒90) | 49 (43‒55) | 64 (58,70) | 43 (36‒49) | 28 (23‒33) |
| p value |
0.0008 |
0.7743 |
0.2784 |
0.1910 |
0.0378 |
| Region | |||||
| Northeast | 80 (74‒87) | 59 (51‒67) | 66 (57,74) | 49 (41‒58) | 34 (26‒41) |
| Midwest | 85 (80‒90) | 46 (38‒54) | 60 (53,68) | 41 (33‒49) | 33 (26‒41) |
| South | 82 (78‒86) | 48 (42‒54) | 63 (58,69) | 40 (34‒45 | 34 (29‒39) |
| West | 75 (68‒81) | 51 (44‒58) | 61 (54,68) | 39 (32‒47) | 30 (24‒37) |
| p value |
0.0663 |
0.1199 |
0.7756 |
0.2810 |
0.8283 |
| Metro status | |||||
| Urban | 81 (76‒86) | 59 (52‒65) | 66 (60,72) | 49 (43‒56) | 44 (38‒50) |
| Suburban | 79 (75‒83) | 46 (40‒51) | 59 (54,64) | 38 (32‒43) | 28 (24‒33) |
| Rural | 83 (78‒88) | 47 (40‒55) | 64 (57,72) | 39 (31‒46) | 28 (21‒34) |
| p value |
0.5218 |
0.0052 |
0.1933 |
0.0163 |
<0.001 |
| Household income | |||||
| <$59,999 | 79 (76‒83) | 48 (43‒53) | 62 (57,66) | 39 (35‒44) | 31 (26‒35) |
| >$60,000 | 82 (78‒86) | 53 (47‒58) | 63 (58,68) | 44 (39‒50) | 36 (31‒41) |
| p value |
0.2638 |
0.2013 |
0.6294 |
0.1722 |
0.0978 |
| Water source¶ | |||||
| Private well | 90 (85‒96) | 63 (54‒72) | 71 (63‒79) | 55 (46‒65) | 48 (39‒57) |
| Municipal | 81 (78‒84) | 48 (44‒52) | 61 (57‒65) | 39 (35‒43) | 30 (26‒34) |
| p value | 0.0101 | 0.0046 | 0.0540 | 0.0009 | 0.0002 |
*Values are percentages agreeing (95% CIs) unless otherwise indicated. Boldface indicates significance (p<0.05 by χ2 or by Wald F-tests where there are >3 categories). “I don’t know” was not included in analysis; “Agree” and “Strongly Agree” were analyzed as “Agree”; “Disagree” and “Strongly Disagree” were not included in analysis. PN, Porter Novelli Public Services and the ENGINE Insights’ PN View 360+ Survey. †Respiratory devices include vaporizers, humidifiers, and continuous positive airway pressure machines. ‡Other race grouped persons who identified as >1 race, Asian, Native American, Alaska Native, or other because of small sample size. §Hispanic, Spanish, or Latino. ¶n = 932.
1Preliminary results from this study were presented at the 2022 Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference, May 2‒5, 2022, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.