Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
Front Public Health. 2022 Dec 15;10:1076090. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1076090. eCollection 2022.
Non-pharmaceutical interventions, including promotion of social distancing, have been applied extensively in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding cognitive and psychological factors regulating precautionary behavior is important for future management. The present study examines the importance of selected factors as predictors of having visited or intended to visit crowded places. Six online questionnaire-based waves of data collection were conducted in April-October 2020 in a Norwegian panel (≥18 years). Sample size at Wave 1 was 1,400. In the present study, "Visited or intended to visit crowded places" for different types of locations were the dependent variables. Predictors included the following categories of items: Perceived response effectiveness, Self-efficacy, Vulnerability, Facilitating factors and Barriers. Data were analyzed with frequency and percentage distributions, descriptives, correlations, principal components analysis, negative binomial-, binary logistic-, and multiple linear regression, and cross-lagged panel models. Analyses of dimensionality revealed that a distinction had to be made between Grocery stores, a location visited by most, and locations visited by few (e.g., "Pub," "Restaurants," "Sports event"). We merged the latter set of variables into a countscore denoted as "Crowded places." On the predictor side, 25 items were reduced to eight meanscores. Analyses of data from Wave 1 revealed a rather strong prediction of "Crowded places" and weaker associations with "Supermarket or other store for food." Across waves, in multiple negative binomial regression models, three meanscore predictors turned out to be consistently associated with "Crowded places." These include "Response effectiveness of individual action," "Self-efficacy with regard to avoiding people," and "Barriers." In a prospective cross-lagged model, a combined Response effectiveness and Self-efficacy score (Cognition) predicted behavior ("Visited or intended to visit crowded places") prospectively and vice versa. The results of this study suggest some potential to reduce people's visits to crowded locations during the pandemic through health education and behavior change approaches that focus on strengthening individuals' perceived response effectiveness and self-efficacy.
非药物干预措施，包括推广社交距离，已广泛应用于管理 COVID-19 大流行。了解调节预防行为的认知和心理因素对于未来的管理很重要。本研究考察了选择因素作为预测去过或打算去拥挤场所的重要性。2020 年 4 月至 10 月，在挪威一个小组（≥18 岁）中进行了六轮在线问卷调查。第 1 波的样本量为 1400。在本研究中，不同类型地点的“去过或打算去拥挤场所”是因变量。预测因素包括以下几类项目：感知反应效果、自我效能、脆弱性、促进因素和障碍。数据分析采用频数和百分比分布、描述性分析、相关性分析、主成分分析、负二项式、二元逻辑回归和多元线性回归以及交叉滞后面板模型。维度分析表明，必须区分大多数人去过的杂货店和少数人去过的地点（例如，“酒吧”、“餐馆”、“体育赛事”）。我们将后一组变量合并为一个计数值，记为“拥挤场所”。在预测方面，25 个项目减少到 8 个平均值。第 1 波数据的分析显示，对“拥挤场所”的预测相当强，而与“超市或其他食品店”的关联较弱。跨波分析，在多个负二项式回归模型中，三个平均值预测因子始终与“拥挤场所”相关。其中包括“个体行动的反应效果”、“避免与人接触的自我效能”和“障碍”。在一个前瞻性交叉滞后模型中，综合反应效果和自我效能得分（认知）前瞻性地预测行为（“去过或打算去拥挤场所”），反之亦然。本研究的结果表明，通过关注增强个人感知反应效果和自我效能的健康教育和行为改变方法，有可能减少人们在大流行期间前往拥挤场所。
