The Health Belief Model, Health Impact and COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors among the Population on Nakhon Ratchasima

Abstract

This mixed methods research studied the perceptions regarding health the belief model, health impact, and CoVID-19 disease preventive behaviors in people living in Nakorn Ratchasima province, Thailand. In the quantitative portion, 400 people were recruited using stratified random sampling. The research tools included: 1) the health belief model questionnaire to assess the perceptions of the susceptibility and severity of health problems, their potential consequences, the perceived benefits of taking action, and the perceived barriers to taking action; and 2) the health impact and the disease preventive behavior questionnaires.  The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the instruments revealed acceptable reliability scores of 0.68-0.87. In the qualitative portion, 10 key informants from the quantitative portion were purposively selected for a focus group and 12 key informants were snowball sampled for in-depth interviews. A semi-structured interview form was developed based on the quantitative questionnaires as the qualitative study tool. Percentages, means, standard deviations, and content analysis were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data, respectively.

The quantitative results showed that participants perceived the susceptibility, severity, benefits of taking action, and perceived barriers to taking action at moderate levels, with perception of the disease -related impacts on health at the high to highest levels and preventive disease behaviors at the good level. The qualitative study found the perceived barriers to taking action regarding CoVID 19 prevention were increased costs, low quality, and insufficient access to masks and alcohol gel and being cheated by sellers. The psychological impacts included experiencing anxiety, distress, stress, and depression. Economic impacts were having low income and high living expenses, being laid-off, and business closures. It was also found that participants lacked awareness of, and did not take, appropriate preventative measures.

The research determined that perception of the benefits and barriers to CoVID-19 prevention were at a moderate level and the perception of the health impacts ranged from the high to highest level, suggesting that the relevant health agencies should formulate policies  for improving the quality of life and promoting people’s health.