Prevention Behaviors of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Of Songkhla Rajabhat University Students

Abstract

This relational research aimed to determine Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) preventive behaviors of students in Songkhla Rajabhat University and to determine relationships among multiple elements including personal factors, knowledge of the disease, perception of receiving disease information, risk perception of the disease, recognition of benefits of preventive practice, and attitudes towards COVID-19 prevention behaviors. The samples consisted of 370 students. The research tool was a questionnaire pertaining to the risk perceptions, the recognition of benefits and the attitudes towards COVID-19 prevention. The reliability of questionnaire was 0.881. The data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results revealed that: 

1. Over 80% of the students had good knowledge regarding COVID-19. 61.62% of them were highly perceived risk of COVID-19 (M = 4.56, SD = .682), benefits of preventive practice (M = 4.67, SD = .627) as well as had high level of attitudes towards COVID-19 prevention (M = 4.18, SD = .747) and preventive behaviors (M = 4.59, SD = .821).
2. Knowledge of COVID-19, risk perception of the disease and attitudes towards the disease prevention were directly related with low level of COVID-19 preventive behaviors among the students with statistical significance of 0.05 (r = -.361, r = .496 and r =.325, respectively). Moreover, the recognition of benefits of COVID-19 linked to preventive practice was found directly related with the intermediate level of COVID-19 preventive behavior among the students with statistical significance of 0.05 (r = .546). It was also found directly related with the remaining factors of the students, except low level of COVID-19 knowledge which was related but in the opposite direction.

The effectiveness of COVID-19 preventive behaviors may require public announcement to keep people updated and aware of the situation. In addition, public, private and academic institutions should be participated and led with stringent and perpetual approaches to prevent the disease sustainably and extensively.