Haq Shamsheer Ul, Shahbaz Pomi, Boz Ismet
Governemnet College University, Department of Economics, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Ondokuz Mayıs University, Department of Agricultural Economics, 55139, Samsun, Turkey.
J Infect Dev Ctries. 2020 Aug 31;14(8):823-835. doi: 10.3855/jidc.12851.
The world is facing a formidable challenge to prevent the COVID-19 global outbreak, and health care systems are under pressure globally. The governments alone cannot prevent the spread of this pandemic without creating a sensitive public opinion and cooperation. Therefore, this study analyzed the knowledge, behavior, and precautionary measures taken by the general public to protect themselves from COVID-19 pandemic.
For this purpose, snowball sampling technique was used to collect data from 401 respondents through an online survey in the Punjab province of Pakistan. A Multivariate Probit Model was used to determine the factors affecting the choice of precautionary measures to avoid COVID-19 infection.
Majority of the respondents (58.1%) belonged to urban areas in this study. The urban respondents had higher knowledge about Coronavirus disease as compared to rural respondents. Similarly, the hygienic behavior of urban respondents was better than rural respondents. But unavailability of hygienic material (mask and hand sanitizer) was the main problem faced by the general public. Public transportation was considered the most risk-prone place to COVID-19 by the respondents. Majority of the respondents perceived medium to highest risk from COVID-19, and it was found one of the most influential factors affecting the adoption of precautionary measures along with knowledge of this pandemic.
Government needs to start a comprehensive awareness campaign on social media along with the mainstream media create awareness about the importance of social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks among the general public to enhance knowledge and improve the behavior of the general public about COVID-19.
世界正面临着预防新冠病毒全球大流行这一艰巨挑战，全球医疗系统都承受着压力。仅靠政府在没有营造出敏感的公众舆论和合作的情况下无法阻止这场大流行的传播。因此，本研究分析了普通民众为保护自己免受新冠病毒大流行影响而采取的知识、行为和预防措施。
为此，采用滚雪球抽样技术，通过在巴基斯坦旁遮普省进行的在线调查从401名受访者那里收集数据。使用多元概率单位模型来确定影响预防措施选择以避免感染新冠病毒的因素。
在本研究中，大多数受访者（58.1%）来自城市地区。与农村受访者相比，城市受访者对冠状病毒病的了解更多。同样，城市受访者的卫生行为比农村受访者更好。但卫生用品（口罩和洗手液）的短缺是普通民众面临的主要问题。受访者认为公共交通是感染新冠病毒风险最高的地方。大多数受访者认为感染新冠病毒的风险为中等至最高，并且发现这是影响采取预防措施的最具影响力因素之一，同时还有对这场大流行的了解。
政府需要在社交媒体以及主流媒体上开展全面的宣传活动，让公众了解保持社交距离、洗手和戴口罩的重要性，以增强公众对新冠病毒的了解并改善其行为。
