Perception, Attitudes, and Knowledge of Social Distancing Policy and the Effect on Social Distancing Behaviors, Psychological Health and Quality of Life in Lampang Population During COVID-19 Pandemic
Keywords:
Social Distancing, Mental Health, Quality of Life, COVID-19 diseaseAbstract
Regarding to the situation of COVID-19 pandemic, people may need to adapt their daily lives to confront the situation by creating a new normal behavior. In the state of changes of the usual behaviors and adaptation to a new normal, the changes may affect on physical health, mental health and as well as quality of life. This cross-sectional research aimed to study perception, attitudes, and knowledge of social distancing policy and its effect on social distancing behaviors, mental health, including depression, anxiety and stress and quality of life among people living in Lampang province. The data was collected via electronic form questionnaires with 432 samples. The instruments were demographic data and questionnaires which consisted of; 1) perception of social distancing policy 2) attitudes towards social distancing policy 3) knowledge of Disease and social distancing policy 4) social distancing behaviors 5) depression assessment 6) stress assessment 7) anxiety assessment and 8) quality of life assessment. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used in data analysis.
The results showed that perception and knowledge towards COVID-19 disease and the social distancing policy were at high level (Mean 25.22, SD 4.48 and Mean 8.54, SD 1.17, respectively) whereas attitudes and practices towards social distancing policy were at medium level (Mean 17.86, SD 2.51 และ Mean 34.83, SD 4.92, respectively). 9.5% of the samples were at risk of depression. Anxiety and stress were at low level (Mean 6.86, SD 4.93 and Mean 3.49, SD 3.36, respectively) and quality of life was at a good level (Mean 98.62, SD 14.94). A combination of perception and attitudes were significant predictors of 34.1% increasing practices towards social distancing policy (p<.001). In addition, perception was found to be a significant predictor of 11.8 percent increased quality of life (p.001). Attitudes towards social distancing policy was a significant predictor of 8.6% decreasing anxiety and of 6.5% decreasing stress (p<.001).
Fostering perception and building a positive attitude towards social distancing policy will encourage behaviors to reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 infection and decrease mental health problems; anxiety and stress. Moreover, it may also help to improve a quality of life.
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