Objective  To explore the intention for excessive disinfection and its impact factors among residents during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic.

  Methods  With convenient sampling and a self-designed questionnaire on the intention for excessive disinfection and its associates, we conducted an online survey among residents in Guangzhou city of Guangdong province during March 3 – 8, 2020. Classification and regression tree model was used to analyze influencing factors of the intention for excessive disinfection among the respondents.

  Results  Valid responses were collected from a total of 1 731 residents (495 28.62% males and 1 236 females 71.38%) averagely aged 37.92 ± 11.97 years. Among the respondents, 57.65% reported the intention for excessive disinfection such as to have disinfection of outdoor air in an open space or to establish a disinfection channel at an entrance of residential quarter and the proportion of reporting the intention differed significantly by the respondents′ age, education, monthly income, disinfection knowledge, marital status, cognition on transmission route of COVID-19, and whether reusing a face mask correctly (P < 0.05 for all). The proportions of respondents reporting the intention were relatively higher among those aged ≤ 20 years (76.92%), with an education of junior high school and below (77.78%), with a monthly income < 2 000 yuan RMB (70.37%), and scored ≤ 2 out of a full mark of 5 for disinfection knowledge (76.47%) but lower among those married (55.00%), having correct cognition on transmission route of COVID-19 (50.68%), and reusing a face mask correctly (53.95%). The results of classification tree regression analysis revealed 5 decision nodes and 6 end nodes and indicated that the respondents having correct cognition on susceptible population of COVID-19, with the education of undergraduate and above, reusing a face mask correctly, with a disinfection knowledge score of < 5, and being unmarried were more likely to report the intention of excessive disinfection (relative risk = 1.399, 95% confidence interval: 1.083 – 1.807).

  Conclusion  The intention of excessive disinfection is prevalent among residents in Guangzhou city, especially among those with lower education and not married.