Associations of COVID-19 Knowledge and Risk Perception with the Full Adoption of Preventive Behaviors in Seoul

This study explores the levels of COVID-19 knowledge, risk perception, and preventive behavior practice in Seoul, to determine whether knowledge and risk perception are significantly associated with the full adoption of preventive behaviors, for the delivery of a customized public campaign to Seoul’s citizens. A total of 3000 Seoul residents participated in this study through an online questionnaire survey. They had a mean score of 84.6 for COVID-19 knowledge (range: 0–100 points) and 4.2 (range: 1–7 points) for risk perception. Of the participants, 33.4% practiced full adoption of all three preventive behaviors: hand hygiene, wearing a face mask, and social distancing; wearing a face mask was practiced the most (81.0%). Women significantly adopted these three preventive behaviors more often compared with men. Both COVID-19 knowledge and risk perception were found to be significantly associated with the full adoption of preventive behaviors; however, this association differed by the type of preventive behavior. This indicates that city-level information on the levels of COVID-19 knowledge, risk perception, and preventive behaviors should be clearly and periodically communicated among public officers and healthcare professionals to continually raise the public’s awareness of the full adoption of non-pharmaceutical preventive behaviors.