Understanding covid-19 prevention behaviours: Implications for social and health marketers for the prevention of future pandemics

Abstract

From the integrative perspectives of the health belief model and social influence theories, the study sought to identify factors social and health marketers should focus on to elicit voluntary change in behavior toward the performance of COVID-19 infection prevention behaviors such as frequent handwashing with soap, social distancing, and avoidance of handshaking using mixed method approach. The quantitative data from 605 respondents through structured questionnaires were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The qualitative data through five focus group discussions were also analyzed using thematic analysis. The result shows that religiosity and trust in traditional medicine are the major factors contributing to the lack of severity and susceptibility to the coronavirus. The result further shows informational and normative social influencers as significant mediators between the constructs of the HBM and the performance of the COVID-19 protocols, suggesting that these influencers play a significant role in achieving the performance of the recommended behaviors.