Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic in an Iranian Sample: Health Beliefs and Respondent Characteristics Associated with Preventive Behaviors

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has become a grave threat to public health. Along with vaccination, preventive behaviors are still an important part in controlling in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aimed to investigate health beliefs and sample characteristics associated with COVID-19 preventive health behaviors among an Iranian sample. Preventive behaviors are still an important part in controlling in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study, using a multi-stage randomized sampling method. Participants (N = 250 males and 236 females) were recruited from health centers in Saveh, Iran. Self-administered questionnaires included sociodemographic information, health behaviors, and constructs associated with the Health Beliefs Model (HBM). Data were analyzed using independent t-tests, analysis of variance, and multiple regression with significance level set at α ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Perceived disease susceptibility (β = 0.44, P< 0.001), self-efficacy to enact preventative behaviors (β = 0.24, P < 0.01), education (β = 0.20, P < 0.001), non-smoking status (β = 0.14, P < 0.01), marital status (β = 0.10, P < 0.03), and perceived barriers to disease preventative behaviors (β = -0.10, P < 0.04) were important predictors of prevention practices for COVID-19, and accounted for 61.4% (adjusted R(2)) of the variance associated with preventive behavior for COVID-19. CONCLUSION: As there is accepted therapy for COVID-19, it is especially important to control COVID-19 through behavior change. Results indicate that two behavioral constructs that have the most impact on prevention are perceived disease susceptibility and self-efficacy. Therefore, public health initiatives are needed to enhance perceived susceptibility to the disease and improve self-efficacy to perform preventative behaviors in spite of perceived barriers.