Abstract
COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges to the global public health response. Preventive behaviors and keeping social distance are regarded as compelling ways to prevent COVID-19. This study focused on the sociological and psychological factors associated with proper and excessive preventive behaviors of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. For the sample, we collected the data of 4788 participants who were surveyed between 4 April and 15 April 2020 from eight provinces in China. This study designed a self-filled questionnaire that included demographic information, six components of the Health Belief Model, and target preventive behaviors. Descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, logistic regression analysis, Mantel–Haenszel hierarchical analysis, and propensity score matching were employed in this study. The results showed that 54.7% of the participants had adequate basic prevention, 63.6% of the participants had adequate advanced prevention, and 5.8% of the participants practiced excessive prevention. The elder participants were less likely to engage in proper preventive behaviors. Perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and knowledge levels were associated with preventive behaviors. Excessive preventive behaviors in high-risk groups with suspected symptoms were associated with their extreme psychological condition, while the support from the community and family plays an important role in avoiding these behaviors.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
The younger participants with higher education were associated with a higher implementation rate of proper behaviors
Perceived sensitivity, perceived severity, perceived benefits, cues to action, and knowledge levels are the predictors of proper preventive behavior
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The condition is highly contagious, and its primary clinical symptoms include fever, dry cough, fatigue, muscle aches, and breathing difficulties [1]. Studies on COVID-19 were mostly related to the pathological, virological, and clinical characteristics of the disease [2,3,4,5,6]. Compared with previous pandemics (such as SARS, MERS, etc.), COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges to the global public health response, in part, due to its unique epidemiological characteristics, the incubation period of COVID-19 can be up to 24 days [7]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 6953; doi:10.3390/ijerph17196953 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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