Background: Adoption of protective health behaviors is extremely important to prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the influencing factors on adopting preventive behaviors during COVID-19 using health belief model (HBM) among the urban population in Maragheh, a city from North West of Iran. Methods: We investigated 383 people via an online questionnaire from December 5 to 11, 2020. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed with an experts' panel of 10 health professionals, and its reliability was 0.74 through Cronbach’s alpha. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyze data. Results: The self-efficacy (17.1 ± 2.5) and perceived benefits (5.7 ± 0.5) were evaluated at a high level. The health behavior was also appraised with a high mean score (21.2 ± 3.2). Among the components of the health belief model, perceived risk, self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers, and among demographic variables, gender and marital status were the predictors of protective behaviors against COVID-19. Conclusions: Self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived risk increased the incidence of protective behavior by 69% and 30%, respectively, and perceived barriers decreased it by 0.07%. Strengthening the ability to adopt protective behaviors and improving the public’s perception of the effectiveness of these behaviors can be useful.

Background: The awareness of people’s health knowledge and behavior on COVID-19 has helped guide education and health promotion policies, and examination of people’s opinions on governance measures against this disease will guide policymakers in making more decisions and responsiveness. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate people’s knowledge and behaviors toward COVID-19 and their views on adopted public policies against this disease in Maragheh, a city in the Northwest of Iran. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, analytical study that was done in urban areas of Maragheh from 13 November to 20 December 2020. The sample size was estimated at 672 participants, and the sampling method was stratified random. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire that consisted of four sections: demographic information, health behaviors, respondent’s knowledge of COVID-19, and their viewpoints on adopted public policies against this disease and was shared online. The one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression were used to analyze data with SPSS version 23. Results: The mean scores of people’s knowledge (6.42 ± 1.2) out of 9 and health behaviors (34.8 ± 3.9) of 36 were moderate. The majority of respondents had high levels of knowledge and also behavior about keeping the physical distance (98.5%) and proper handwashing (97.9%). Knowledge (β = 0.23) and male (β = -0.27) were the predictors of health behaviors (p < 0.001, F = 12.47). The investigation of myths on COVID-19 indicated that 17% and 41.1% of the respondents believed that alcohol consumption and using garlic and herbal drinks are effective in the prevention and 57.7% of them believed that holding the breath for 10 seconds is a sign of being healthy. People’s views on the COVID-19 control policies were assessed to be at the medium level (48.2 ± 7.5) of 65. The most effective policies against COVID-19 from the people’s opinions consisted of lockdown policies (96.4%), schools’ closure (95.9%), and constraints on intercity trips (91.3%). Conclusions: It seems necessary to strengthen measures on health knowledge promotion and implementation of health education interventions on protective behaviors of COVID-19 in such a way that right beliefs are replaced with wrong ones. Based on positive public opinions on Lockdown interventions, re-applying these policies is recommended to get the cities out of the high-risk situation.