Preventive health behaviours during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic based on health belief model among Egyptians

Abstract

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly in the world, and on 11 March 2020, WHO announced the outbreak a global pandemic. Given the severity of this major outbreak and the importance of prevention and protection against the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the predictors of engaging in the preventive behaviours could potentially be of great practical importance as it could help us identify high-risk groups and take the necessary steps towards improving their health behaviour. As the health behavioural response of the Egyptian population during COVID-19 is unknown and the health belief model constructs can be used to explain health behaviour, this study was conducted to assess the preventive behaviours to COVID-19 and the associated role of health belief model constructs over three periods of time; at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic then 4 weeks and10 weeks later. Results Perceived severity and benefits of health belief model constructs showed significant decrease in the 2nd interview, followed by an increase in the 3rd interview (P < 0.001). Perceived barriers showed a significant increase in the 2nd interview followed by a significant decrease in the 3rd interview (P < 0.001). Knowledge score was significantly lower at the start, then a surge happened in the next interview followed by a slight drop in the 3rd interview (P < 0.001). Preventive behaviours were significantly lower in the 2nd interview then significantly higher in the 3rd interview (P < 0.001). On the analysis of the factors associated with preventive behaviours using multivariate regression, the results determined age, high education, being a health care worker, perceived susceptibility, benefits, barriers and self-efficacy. Conclusions Perceptions of benefits could be increased by tailoring communication strategies to various groups, emphasizing how different people can engage in effective preventive behaviours. Policy makers should pay attention to lower-educated persons living in rural areas being a group with the least engagement in health-protective actions.

Factors associated with COVID-19 preventive health behaviors among the general public in Mexico City and the State of Mexico

“…Several sociodemographic factors were associated with uptake of preventive measures. Similar to other studies, COVID-19 preventive health actions were more frequent in women [6,7,36] and increased with age [6,37]. Professional workers, homemakers, and retirees were associated with higher adoption of preventive actions.…”

Knowledge and Beliefs of Tanta University Employees Regarding Emerging Respiratory Tract Infections and Its Preventive Measures Based on Health Belief Model

“…Also, this result is nearly in the same line with Barakat and Kasemy, (2020) (45) , who mentioned that, their participants had less perceived barriers to preventive individual behaviors, such as hand washing, but environmental barriers such as shortage of masks, alcohol pads, and disinfectant agents strongly influenced the behaviors.…”

“…To get the required level of adherence, it is important to evaluate the population's knowledge and beliefs regarding the emerging RTIs. Health belief model is based on the idea that changing the health belief is of significant importance for behavior change Barakat and Kasemy, (45) . So, in the current study, we assess the employees' perception of their susceptibility to catch respiratory infections, severity of the disease, benefits or barriers for following preventive measures in addition to their perception of cues to action and self-efficacy in following the preventive measures based on the health belief model.…”

Citizens’ health practices during the COVID -19 pandemic in Indonesia: Applying the health belief model

“…The health belief model (HBM) is one of the theoretical guidelines for healthy lifestyle practices in epidemiology and behavioral study. Moreover, the HBM is common and widely accepted due to its high prediction accuracy (Rosenstock et al, 1988;Barakat & Kasemy, 2020). The HBM has a strong correlation with how citizens assess the challenges and difficulties they could encounter when adopting new practices related to health (Barakat & Kasemy, 2020).…”