Personal disease prevention and hygienic behavior during COVID-19 pandemic of people in Si Sa Ket Province.

Abstract

This research studies personal disease prevention and hygienic behavior during COVID-19 pandemic of people in Si Sa Ket Province. The objective is to determine the behaviors that can affect the risk of contracting and study preventive behaviors toward covid-19 of people in Si Sa Ket province. The study samples are 36 people in the province who have contracted covid-19 and 36 people in the province who have not contracted the disease. The selection was performed by specific method and the study is conducted as a qualitative research. Interviews were conducted and the tool for the research was semi-structure interview. The information was analyzed from the taped interviews to collect personal disease prevention and hygienic behavior during COVID-19 pandemic. The accuracy and correlation of the information were examined by the researcher’s interpretation with triangulation method.

Results

1. Behaviors which increased the risk of contracting covid-19 were activities in public places where chances of contacts high. Contractions within household were observed due to lack of preventive behaviors such as having meals with family sharing dishes without using service spoons and sharing household objects. There were also outside risk factors which were not under control of the study subjects.

2. Preventive behaviors against Covid-19 of people in Si Sa Ket province included personal health responsibility such as getting vaccination, complying with official preventive measures (D-M-H-T-T-A). In addition, up-keeping of personal physical and mental health by exercising and healthy food consumption as well as stress management was vital in prevention of contraction of covid-19. Interpersonal relationship and mental maturity and development were good indications of the subjects’ expression of confidence and compliance with official preventive measures against covid-19. The preventive behaviors were beneficial for preservation of self and family members as well as good expression of social responsibility.