Abstract
Little is known about the evaluative and cognitive foundations for adopting preventive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Recognizing the existence of a gap in the knowledge describing the intention and behavior of participating in health measures, this study investigated the drivers that contribute to the intention to take health protective measures among 305 rural youth from the Dashtestan Region, Bushehr Province, and southern Iran, reached through an online survey. Protection motivation theory (PMT) served as the theoretical framework for the study. It was able to forecast variation in intentions and behaviors with accuracies of 39 and 64%, respectively. Furthermore, the variables of response efficiency, perceived severity, and self-efficacy had a positive and significant effect on protective intentions. Additionally, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and intention produced a positive and significant impression on behaviors, with most of the behavioral variance being accounted for by intention, as was hypothesized. In conclusion, it is suggested that health development including training measures that take account of both the concrete issues of health resources and technologies and of more abstract ones, such as mindset readiness, are important for engagement in positive health care behaviors. Accordingly, training-based interventions for rural youth should be contemplated, with the object of changing their intentions.
Highlights
Leaders in important components and functions of world societies, such as economics, social interactions, health, education, and politics, have been forced to grapple with COVID-19, occasionally in contexts that produce promising news and sometimes with outcomes that exacerbate conditions
The objectives of this study were to assess the predictive power of Protection motivation theory (PMT), describe the drivers of behavioral intention in this context, and develop determinants for protective behaviors
The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to indicate the association between independent variables and protective behavior, the dependent variable
Summary
Leaders in important components and functions of world societies, such as economics, social interactions, health, education, and politics, have been forced to grapple with COVID-19, occasionally in contexts that produce promising news and sometimes with outcomes that exacerbate conditions. Most studies of COVID-19 have focused on the medical and technical aspects of the subject, such as the causative agent of the disease and its pathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment, along with possible preventive interventions [3, 4]. These interventions are generally intended for use by urban residents. Young villagers are vital stakeholders because they are in direct contact with food resources in supply chains Their travel to urban areas and remaining there in opposition to health advisories can result in the failure of interventions and can increase the spread of the disease. The study of health protection measures in Iran is important because it was the first low- or middle-income country to suffer a major outbreak including rural areas, and learning from Iran’s experience will help all lowand middle-income countries [5]
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