Abstract
COVID-19 is an unprecedented challenge for public health worldwide. Reducing the incidence of the disease requires protective measures to prevent virus transmission. Understanding those factors influencing preventive behavior is the first step in preventing the spread of the disease. This study investigates factors affecting youth intention and preventive behaviors in the face of COVID-19 through the health belief model by using a cross-sectional survey collected through an online questionnaire. The sample comprises 304 rural youth in South Iran who were selected through a random sampling technique. The results reveal that perceived severity, perceived benefits, public health beliefs, perceived self-efficacy, and the cue to act positively and significantly affect preventive behaviors. The model explains 59% of variance changes in rural youth preventive behaviors during COVID-19. Cue to action is the strongest and self-efficacy was the weakest determinant of youth's preventive behavior. This study confirms that the HBM framework has appropriate predictive power and is an effective tool for investigating preventive behaviors during COVID-19. These results provide important policy implications for the development of policies that aim to avoid the further spread of COVID-19 between young citizens.
Highlights
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement declaring the outbreak of the new coronavirus to be a public health emergency and a threat to the entire world [1]
This study investigates why the adoption of preventive behavior by youth differs from other age groups? This research seeks to answer this question among rural youth in Bushehr province of southern Iran
The results show that there is a positive and significant correlation between preventive behavior and perceived severity, perceived susceptibility (PSU), perceived benefits (PBE), self-efficacy, general health beliefs, and cue to action
Summary
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement declaring the outbreak of the new coronavirus to be a public health emergency and a threat to the entire world [1]. Due to its contagious nature and rapid spread around the world, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed it as a pandemic [2]. The disease severely disrupted the daily activities of more than half of the world’s population. The movement of people and many goods from different regions stopped completely [3]. The coronavirus severely affected people’s health, it affected the world economy [4]. The increasing outbreak of COVID-19 cases and deaths has increased the fears of household vulnerability to food insecurity worldwide [5]
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