Causal effect of health belief model constructs in predicting anxiety in health workers: An insight from Indonesia during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Health workers are a vulnerable group to the psychosocial effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to assess the constructs of health belief model (HBM) to predict anxiety during the pandemic among health workers using a path analysis model. It was an analytic observational study with a cross-sectional design. The data were collected through an online questionnaire, from May to July 2020. The study population was health workers in Indonesia. A sample of 508 health workers was selected for this study. The dependent variable was anxiety. The independent variables were gender, age, education, income, perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, perceived benefit, perceived barrier, self-efficacy, number of family members, and daily need fulfillment. The selected data were analyzed by a path analysis run on Stata 13. This study found that anxiety was directly increased by high perceived susceptibility (b= 0.41; 95% CI= 0.01 to 0.80; p= 0.044), high perceived seriousness (b= 0.99; 95% CI= 0.59 to 1.40; p<0.001), and high perceived barrier (b= 0.84; 95% CI= 0.42 to 1.25; p <0.001). Anxiety was directly decreased by high perceived benefit (b= -12.24; 95% CI= -1211.64 to 1187.16; p= 0.984), being male (b= -0.18; 95% CI= -0.63 to 0.27; p= 0.430), sufficient daily needs fulfillment (b= -1.10 95% CI= -1.49 to -0.70; p<0.001), and strong self-efficacy (b= -0.16; 95% CI= -0.58 to 0.26; p= 0.467). Anxiety was indirectly affected by age, number of family members, income, and education. It can be concluded that the health belief model can be used to predict anxiety in health workers during the pandemic.