Examining Psychosocial Factors and Community Mitigation Practices to Limit the Spread of COVID-19: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

We examine the psychosocial factors influencing community adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) to limit the spread of COVID-19. Using data from 990 respondents in communities across Nigeria, we examine the correlation of health behaviors and socioeconomic indicators. We conduct logistic regression to estimate the relationship between mask wearing as a health-seeking NPI with demographic and socioeconomic variables. We estimate separate models in the sensitivity robustness checks with other NPIs and control for differences across sex, age, education, number in household, and the presence of a student in the respondent’s household. A crucial finding is that health-seeking NPI behaviors are statistically significantly affected in different ways by the menu of socioeconomic indicators. The control for age, sex, education, and household size indicates that there is intersectionality of how these factors influence specific mitigation practices. We find that women are more likely to engage in mask wearing, hand washing, and use of hand sanitizers and tissues than men, and the provision of palliatives and access to family supplies significantly enhances community mitigation. Palliatives and access to family supplies enhance most health-seeking behaviors. The implication for pandemic mitigation policy is that minimizing incidence rates requires having responsive initiatives such as information updates on pandemic progression.

The impact of public-initiated COVID-19 risk communication on individual NPI practices

“…The current author also reported a similar pattern of change in NPI compliance level in the community [11]. Another community-based study that examine covid-19 community mitigation practices in Nigeria found that wide ranges of government measures, healthcare policy related to the pandemic and public campaign intervention programs affected individual behavior towards NPIs practices [20].…”

“…Abdelhafiz and colleagues identified urban resident Egyptians had better knowledge and NPI practice compared to the rural residents [28]. Females were more likely to follow good preventive practices, comply with wearing mask and hand hygiene than men in different populationbased studies in Africa [11,20,29]. A previous weekly monitoring of NPIs at different service facilities have also a similar result [11].…”

“…The Most of NPI related studies focused on the effectiveness of different and combined NPIs on the control of transmission but information regarding public compliance level with time-line was limited. In some studies, organized efforts initiated by governments, public awareness advocacy and risk communication programs affect NPI adherence in a community [19][20][21]. A population based bi-weekly survey (April to November 2020) from the US showed a substantial decrease of NPI adherence index from 70 at the beginning of the survey, maintain plateau at 50s during June and a slight increase to 60 in November [21].…”

Impact of Covid -19 incidence rate and government-initiated risk communication measures on individual’s NPI practices

“…The current authors also reported a similar change in pattern of NPI compliance [ 2 ]. Another community-based study in Nigeria that examined Covid-19 community mitigation practices found that wide ranges of government measures, healthcare policy and public campaign programs related to the pandemic affected populations behavior towards NPIs practices [ 29 ].…”

“…Abdelhafiz and colleagues identified urban resident Egyptians had better knowledge and NPI practice compared to the rural residents [ 36 ]. Females were more likely to follow good preventive practices, comply with wearing mask and hand hygiene than men in different population-based studies in Africa [ 2 , 29 , 37 ]. A previous weekly monitoring of NPIs at different service facilities in Ethiopia have also reported a similar result [ 2 ].…”