Factors Associated with Behavior on The Prevention of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) Among Village Health Volunteers in Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

          The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that is rapidly and continuously spreading throughout the world. This outbreak has an impact on people's health and quality of life in all regions. As a result, Village Health Volunteers (VHV) play an important role in supporting the healthcare sector, particularly in their community, by performing tasks such as early disease screening and prevention, patient follow-up and monitoring, and COVID-19 surveillance and control. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to look into VHV behavior regarding COVID-19 prevention, VHV health literacy regarding COVID-19 prevention, and factors associated with VHV behavior regarding COVID-19 prevention among VHV in Khon Kaen province. A questionnaire was used to interview 600 people. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression, and the adjusted odds ratio (OR_adj) with a 95% confidence interval and p-value was calculated.

          According to the findings, 75.5 percent of VHV cases were female, with an average age of 56.1 years (S.D.=9.5).The good level of COVID-19 prevention behavior was approximately 96.5 percent (mean=42.0 SD=3.0); additionally, the high level of health literacy in this outbreak prevention was 72.8 percent (mean=127.1 S.D.=11.1). Female was also a significant factor associated with COVID-19prevention behavior among VHV in Khon Kaen province (P-value<0.05, OR_adj=2.68, 95%CI=1.07-6.72, P-value=0.019). Finally, VHV's health literacy in coronavirus disease prevention in 2019 was high (OR_adj=27.82, 95%CI=6.38-121.24, P-value<0.001).

          Inconclusion, it can be seen that most village health volunteers have a good level of preventive behavior for COVID-19. Gender and a high level of health literacy were found to be related to COVID-19 prevention behavior. However, some village health volunteers still had behavior that should be improved and their health literacy about COVID-19 was at a low level.  the data shows that some VHV should develop potential behaviors and improve their health literacy. VHV skills must be developed in programs aimed at disease prevention or increasing health literacy. This will ensure VHV's confidence in their ability to perform their roles and drive the healthcare ecosystem strongly and sustainably in disease prevention and control in the future.