Abstract
BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been significant variations in the level of adoption of public health recommendations across international jurisdictions and between cultural groups. Such variations have contributed to the dissimilar levels of risks associated with this world-changing viral infection and have highlighted the potential role of culture in assigning meaning and importance to personal protective behaviours. The purpose of this study is to describe the cultural factors during the COVID-19 pandemic that shaped protective health behaviours in the Chinese-Canadian community, one of the largest Chinese diasporas outside of Asia.MethodsA qualitative descriptive design was employed. Content analysis was used to analyze the data from semi-structured virtual interviews conducted with 83 adult Chinese-Canadian participants residing in a metropolitan area in the Province of Ontario, Canada.FindingsThe cultural factors of collectivism, information seeking behaviour, symbolism of masks, and previous experience with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged as themes driving the early adoption of personal protective behaviours within the Chinese-Canadian community during the first wave of COVID-19. These protective behaviours that emerged prior to the first nation-wide lockdown in Canada included physical distancing, mask use, and self-quarantine beyond what was required at the time.ConclusionThese findings have implications for the development of future public health interventions and campaigns targeting personal protective behaviours in this population and other ethnic minority populations with similar characteristics.
Highlights
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been significant variations in the level of adoption of public health recommendations across international jurisdictions and between cultural groups
Qualitative description offers an analysis that is closer to the data, which yields higher descriptive validity [13]. This is useful in the description of phenomena where little is known due to its use of common terminology understood by researchers and participants [13], allowing a rich descriptive summary of the phenomenon of protective behaviour in the context of culture and COVID-19 that can be understood by the general public
Our findings suggest that these platforms are used frequently amongst Chinese-Canadians; an official public health presence would be beneficial for this community
Summary
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been significant variations in the level of adoption of public health recommendations across international jurisdictions and between cultural groups. Such variations have contributed to the dissimilar levels of risks associated with this world-changing viral infection and have highlighted the potential role of culture in assigning meaning and importance to personal protective behaviours. Culture, which is defined as the beliefs, attitudes, practices and explanations used to create behavioural norms in a group, can play a key role in the adoption of protective behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic [6]. Culture can influence the degree to which citizens willingly subsume their individual needs to collective goals, which has significant implications for voluntary compliance with abatement measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, including mask-wearing and social distancing [7]
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