Community Participation in COVID-19 Prevention at Nongsawan Village, Chiangpin Sub-district, Mueang District, Udonthani Province

Abstract

This participatory action research aimed to study the community participatory development process in COVID-19 prevention and determine the outcomes of the development at Nongsawan Village, Chiangpin Sub-district, Mueang District, Udonthani Province. The participants were composed of 50 community leaders and 100 household members. The research instruments included the demographic questionnaire, the COVID-19 knowledge test with reliability as .62, the perceived risk and severity of COVID-19 questionnaire with reliability as .81, the preventing behaviors of COVID-19 questionnaire with reliability as .92, the community data record form, the in-depth interview guide for community leader, the focus group guide, and the observation form. Two cycles of this research (each cycle comprised 4 steps including planning, action, observation, and reflection) were conducted from May to October, 2020. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, paired t-test, and content analysis.

The research results revealed that 1) situation before the development: the participants lacked the knowledge about COVID-19 and the perceived risk and severity of COVID-19, they also had inappropriate preventing behaviors of COVID-19, and the community lacked the measures of COVID-19 prevention; 2) the developing activities were composed of providing health education about COVID-19, promoting the perceived risk and severity of COVID-19, enhancing preventing behaviors of COVID-19, and setting the community measures of COVID-19 prevention; and 3) after the development, both community leaders and household members had statistically significant higher mean scores of knowledge about COVID-19, perceived risk and severity of COVID-19, and preventing behaviors of COVID-19 than those of before the development (p < .001). In addition, it was found that the community members participated in COVID-19 prevention and there was no COVID-19 patient in community.

This research suggests that health personnel and the relevant agencies should apply the community participation for COVID-19 prevention in other settings, through educating knowledge, promoting the perception of disease, and enhancing health behaviors among the community members in order to achieve the good outcomes of disease prevention.