Knowledge of COVID-19 and Its Relationship with Preventive Behaviors and Vaccination among Adults in Northern Thailand’s Community

Abstract

(1) Background: the 2019 coronavirus disease outbreak (COVID-19) has posed a major threat to public health and had a significant impact on all areas of people’s lives. Vaccines against COVID-19 have been developed to control the disease, and an array of personal hygiene measures has been introduced. As a result, information that will support and promote vaccination among populations as well as other health measures against COVID-19 are urgently needed. The goal of this research was to look into the knowledge about COVID-19 and how it relates to preventive behaviors and vaccination among people living in rural areas of northern Thailand. (2) Methods: a cross-sectional study was performed in four upper northern provinces of Thailand. A total of 1524 participants were recruited using the probability sampling technique. Questionnaires were distributed to collect data on general health information, as well as knowledge and preventive behaviors regarding COVID-19. (3) Results: more than half (55.9%) of the participants were female and had not received the COVID-19 vaccine (67.2%). Their mean age was 44.13 years. The majority had moderate COVID-19 knowledge and engaged in preventive behaviors (65.5% and 42.0%, respectively). A linear regression model showed that the COVID-19 knowledge score was related to the COVID-19 preventive behaviors score, with a standardized coefficient of 0.510, after adjusting for age, underlying disease, and body mass index (B = 2.64; 95%CI = 2.42, 2.87). Binary logistic regression revealed that after controlling for age, education, occupation, financial status, and current disease (AOR = 1.87; 95%CI = 1.64–2.13), the score of COVID-19 knowledge was significantly associated with having the COVID-19 vaccine. (4) Discussion: knowledge of COVID-19 is very important for people in rural regions to engage in COVID-19 prevention behaviors and vaccination. Relevant government agencies and health network partners should support proactive education campaigns emphasizing the risk of contracting the disease and its severity in order to promote vaccination against COVID-19 among unvaccinated groups. These campaigns can highlight COVID-19’s positive benefit-risk balance in the short and long term and ensure public safety measures against COVID-19.

Using the Health Belief Model to Predict Vaccination Intention Among COVID-19 Unvaccinated People in Thai Communities

“…The geographical research area is in a remote and hard to access region located 30-40 km from the city center. The sampling technique and participant recruitment were described previously (23). In brief, one district was chosen from each province, and one sub-district of each district was obtained by random sampling.…”

“…Participants were randomly selected from each sub-district. All unvaccinated participants who took part in our earlier study (23) were invited to participate. In total, 1,024 of 1,524 subjects from four provinces were enrolled.…”

“…The scores were divided into three categories: High level = ≥80%, Moderate level = 60-79%, and Low level = <60%. Our previously published socio-demographic and COVID-19 preventive behavior data on the study populations was used (23). The behavior questions were designed to be suitable for participants living in rural areas (26,27) and consisted of 15 items with three responses: never, sometimes or ≤4 times/week, and regularly or ≥5 times/week (for example, you dispose your mask after you use it in sealed plastic bag or covered bin; you wash your hands with soap after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose).…”

“…The HBM variables used to predict COVID-19 preventive behaviors and vaccination decision were examined using multiple linear regression. The demographic variables including age, underlying disease, and BMI were controlled because they are important factors that influence preventive behaviors(23), while underlying disease was included in the model to predict COVID-19 vaccination decision. Tolerance and variance inflation factor (VIF) were measured to check multicollinearity in the regression model.…”

Suboptimal COVID‐19 vaccine uptake among hospitalised patients

“…In our setting, poor knowledge of the local people is also common and ongoing health education to the local people is a basic response to this. 4 Continuous monitoring of this knowledge is important and useful for adjustment of vaccination plans as the local COVID-19 outbreak situation and vaccination response change. 4 Last, vaccine availability is also an issue that should be discussed, including the situation of availability of the vaccine in the study setting of Roberts et al In our settings, in developing areas, vaccine is sometimes in insufficient supply and it is a factor that is associated with suboptimal uptake of COVID-19 vaccine among the local population.…”