Abstract
Although health behavior theories indicate that fear is effective in activating preventive behaviors, the question of whether COVID-19 severity moderates the association between fear of COVID-19 and preventive behaviors remains unclear. The present study investigated the association between the fear of COVID-19 and preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 community outbreak of two severity levels in Taiwan. Data were obtained regarding the fear of COVID-19 and practice of preventive behaviors from 139 older people (mean age = 71.73 years; 30.2% men) through in-person interviews during a mild COVID-19 outbreak period (baseline assessment). Data from 126 of the 139 participants were obtained again through a telephone interview during a severe COVID-19 outbreak period (follow-up assessment). A significant increase in the fear of COVID-19 (d = 0.39, p < 0.001) and a decrease in preventive behaviors (d = 0.63, p < 0.001) were found in the follow-up assessment. The association between fear of COVID-19 and preventive behaviors was not significant at baseline (r = −0.07, p > 0.05) but became significant at the follow-up assessment (r = 0.32, p < 0.001). The severity of a COVID-19 outbreak may alter older people's psychological status and related behaviors.
Highlights
Since late 2019 and early 2020, the increasing global spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has adversely affected various aspects of individuals’ lives including public health, finances, and caregiving burden [1,2,3,4]
Among the variables assessed after the community outbreak, fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with paying attention to COVID-19 news, preventive COVID-19 behaviors, COVID-19 news searching behavior, and perceived infectability (r = 0.25 to 0.49, p < 0.01), and trust in COVID19 information was significantly associated with preventive COVID-19 behaviors (r = 0.30, p < 0.01)
All path coefficients were significant in the proposed model when it was fitted with follow-up data (Figure 3B)
Summary
Since late 2019 and early 2020, the increasing global spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has adversely affected various aspects of individuals’ lives including public health, finances, and caregiving burden [1,2,3,4]. Prior to the development of effective vaccines to promote herd immunity in the community [7,8,9], engaging in preventive behaviors is the most efficient way to reduce the transmission rate of infectious diseases including COVID-19 [10,11,12]. Many countries have applied spatial distancing measures (e.g., “lockdowns,” quarantining) to reduce COVID19 transmission [13,14,15]. Such policies have demonstrated promising results in COVID-19 infection control because the infection rate was lower in countries that launched early preventive policies (e.g., Taiwan) such as border control and quarantine [11, 16, 17]. Healthcare providers should identify potential factors associated with individuals’ preventive behaviors at different severity levels of COVID-19 outbreak to help fight against the long-lasting COVID-19 pandemic
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