Effectiveness of participation and social support to change behavior of preventing COVID-19 infection among people in Kanthararom municipality, Kanthararom district, Sisaket Province

Abstract

The objective of the quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effects of participation and social support programs to change behavior regarding preventing COVID-19 infection of people in Muangkanthararom municipality, Kanthararom district, Sisaket Province. There was a total of 70 samples which were divided into two groups. The experimental group consisted of 35 people, and the control group consisted of 35 people. The experimental group was people in Muangkanthararom municipality, Kanthararom district, Sisaket Province, and the control group was people in Muangkhunhan municipality, Khunhan district, Sisaket Province. The experimental group received the program for 12 weeks, and the control group did not receive the program. Data were collected from questionnaires twice, before and after experiments during July 1, 2021, and September 30, 2021, and were analyzed by descriptive statistics and presented in percentages, mean, and standard deviations. Comparing differences in average scores of variables between groups was based on the independent t-test with a statistical significance level of 5%. The results showed the outcomes of comparing differences in scores on “knowledge of coronavirus disease (2019)”, “perception of coronavirus disease (2019) risk exposure”, “perception of the severity of COVID-19”, “social support for COVID-19 prevention and control”, and “prevention and control behavior of COVID-19”. In addition, it was shown that the average scores among the experimental group were higher than before the experiment and higher than those in the control group, with a statistically significant level at 0.05. In conclusion, this developed process could be used for changing the behavior of preventing COVID-19 infection of people according to the intended purpose.