Preventive behaviors against COVID‐19 among health care providers in Iran: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Background and AimDuring outbreaks of infectious diseases, if healthcare providers do not follow the principles of prevention, the risk of personal infection increases and they become a source of infection spread. This study aimed to determine the factors related to the preventive health behaviors of COVID‐19 among Iranian healthcare providers based on protection motivation theory (PMT).MethodsThis analytical cross‐sectional study included 346 healthcare providers. Data was collected by an online researcher‐made questionnaire based on PMT. To analyze the data, independent T tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Spearman correlation coefficient, multiple linear regression, and SPSS 22 software were used. α was considered as 0.05.Results85.3% of the healthcare providers would always wear masks, 80.7% would always refuse to kiss and touch hands with others, and 34.7% sometimes would exercise at home. The preventive behaviors were significantly correlated with protection motivation (r = 0.84), self‐efficacy (r = 0.51), response efficiency (r = 0.43), perceived severity (r = 0.41) Fear (r = 0.21), perceived susceptibility (r = 0.11), response cost (r = −0.14), and reward (r = −0.15). PMT constructs were able to predict 77% of the variance of the behaviors and the protection motivation construct was the strongest predictor (β = 0.806). Income above 300 Dolars per month was significantly related to the decrease in the mean score of preventive behaviors against COVID‐19. The female sex and the individual or family history of infectious diseases were significantly related to increasing the mean score of COVID‐19 preventive behaviors.ConclusionBased on the study results, it is suggested that some educational interventions be designed and implemented with a focus on this construct and the perceived severity construct and that more attention be given to the education of health care providers with high‐income levels, male providers, and the individuals without a history of corona infection in themselves or their family members.