Predictors of adherence to the COVID-19 pandemic control guidelines

Abstract

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments adopted measures to contain the disease, whose adherence is determined by multiple factors. In order to guide more effective prevention strategies, the present study aimed to identify predictors of adherence behavior to the COVID-19 pandemic control guidelines. A survey was conducted with a non-probabilistic sample composed of 2,705 Brazilians, who answered an instrument with six questionnaires (adherence to the pandemic control measures, emotions, empathy, altruism, coping, and biodemographic), whose data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. It was found that the agreement with the guidelines of the World Health Organization for pandemic control, disagreement with the position of the country’s president, altruism, coping capacity, belonging to the risk group, and having close contact (at home) with people from the risk group are predictors of adherence behavior. It is concluded that preventive actions must consider these variables for greater effectiveness.

In the same storm, but on different boats: The social determination of mental health during COVID-19

“…The high number of deaths, the exhaustion of health services and the lack of vaccines, created just one year later, indicated the need for interventions to reduce the spread of the disease (Faro et al, 2020;Hildebrandt et al, 2022). With this mission in mind, since the beginning of the pandemic, the WHO has guided different non-pharmacological measures to prevent and contain the disease, such as the adoption of personal hygiene etiquette rules (face masks, hand washing, and hand sanitizers), quarantine (for infected people), social isolation (for those who had contact with sick people), social distancing (to avoid crowding of the general population) and, in stricter cases, lockdown (with the closure of stores, malls, schools/universities, and all services considered non-essential) (World Health Organization, 2020).…”

“…Such prevention measures, added to the health, economic, social, and political context, despite having proven their effectiveness and being guided by international and national scientific and health organizations (Brooks et al, 2020;Hildebrandt et al, 2022), have changed the way routine and life of the population (Faro et al, 2020;Ferreira et al, 2022;Ivatiuk et al, 2022). Furthermore, it is noted that COVID-19, in addition to being a disease that, from an epidemiological point of view, generated more than 270 million cases and more than 5 million deaths worldwide by the end of 2022, has indicators that point to a disease that is also social (Crepaldi et al, 2020).…”