Asnakew Zeleke, Asrese Kerebih, Andualem Mulusew
Department of Management, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
Department of Social Work, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2020 Dec 8;13:2887-2897. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S279907. eCollection 2020.
This study assessed the community's level of risk perception of COVID-19, their compliance with recommended precautionary measures, and factors that influence compliance behavior.
This study is a cross-sectional online survey administered using google forms. Data were collected from 521 respondents using various social media channels, including e-mail, Facebook, messenger, telegram, and IMO.
About 9 in 10 respondents (90.4%) perceived that they are susceptible to COVID-19. Nearly 9 in 10 participants (87.5%) perceived that COVID-19 is a serious disease. The majority of respondents (81%) got information about COVID-19 from television and social networking sites. The regression analyses revealed that compliance with preventive behaviors is differed by respondents' socio-demographic characteristics. Being female (β: 0.094, P<0.05), higher perceived effectiveness of recommended preventive measures (β: 0.367, P<0.001), and higher perceived reliability of media (β: 0.189, P<0.001) facilitated compliance with preventive measures. On the other hand, increasing age (β: -0.096, P<0.05), being single (β: -0.127, P<0.01), lower education level (β: -0.168, P<0.01), and living at a lower administrative level were barriers to be compliant with preventive measures.
The majority of the respondents exercised one or more of the recommended preventive measures to avoid COVID-19 infection. Most of the respondents got information about COVID-19 from television and social networking sites. Given that about 80% of the Ethiopian population is living in rural areas without television and higher illiteracy rate to use social networking sites, concerned bodies should introduce tailored interventions to impart knowledge about COVID-19 infection and mitigating measures.
Although the sampling procedure was random through the online system, it might not be representative to study the perception and compliance of people towards COVID-19 prevention practices at a country level due to its small size. Thus, the interpretation of the study findings needs to consider this limitation.
本研究评估了社区对新冠病毒病的风险认知水平、他们对推荐预防措施的遵守情况以及影响遵守行为的因素。
本研究是一项使用谷歌表单进行的横断面在线调查。通过包括电子邮件、脸书、信使、电报和即时通讯应用在内的各种社交媒体渠道，从521名受访者收集数据。
约十分之九的受访者（90.4%）认为自己易感染新冠病毒病。近十分之九的参与者（87.5%）认为新冠病毒病是一种严重疾病。大多数受访者（81%）从电视和社交网站获取有关新冠病毒病的信息。回归分析显示，预防行为的遵守情况因受访者的社会人口特征而异。女性（β：0.094，P<0.05）、对推荐预防措施的较高感知有效性（β：0.367，P<0.001）以及对媒体的较高感知可靠性（β：0.189，P<0.001）促进了对预防措施的遵守。另一方面，年龄增长（β：-0.096，P<0.05）、单身（β：-0.127，P<0.01）、较低的教育水平（β：-0.168，P<0.01）以及较低行政级别居住是遵守预防措施的障碍。
大多数受访者采取了一项或多项推荐的预防措施以避免感染新冠病毒病。大多数受访者从电视和社交网站获取有关新冠病毒病的信息。鉴于约80%的埃塞俄比亚人口生活在没有电视的农村地区且使用社交网站的文盲率较高，相关机构应采取针对性干预措施，传授有关新冠病毒病感染及缓解措施的知识。
尽管抽样程序通过在线系统是随机的，但由于样本量小，可能无法代表全国层面人们对新冠病毒病预防措施的认知和遵守情况。因此，对研究结果的解释需考虑这一局限性。
