The Effects of a Self-efficacy Enhancing Program with Participation of Public Health Volunteers on the Knowledge and Coronavirus 2019 Preventive Behaviors in the Elderly, Pomphet Medical Center PhraNakhon Si Ayutthaya Province

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effects of a self-efficacy enhancing program with participation of public health volunteers on the knowledge and coronavirus 2019 preventive behaviors in the elderly population around Pomphet Medical Center in PhraNakhon Si Ayutthaya Province. The sample consisted of 40 elderly people aged > 60 who live in the area of Pomphet Medical Center’s responsibility in PhraNakhon Si Ayutthaya province. They were selected by the simple random sampling method and they were divided into the experimental group (20 individuals) and the comparative group (20 individuals). The research instruments included: 1) the self-efficacy enhancing program with participation of public health volunteers, which was developed based on the self-efficacy concepts of Bandura. The duration of the program was 6 weeks. The activities comprised: 1) giving knowledge and practising coronavirus 2019 preventive skills (2) enhancement of self-efficacy and (3) participation of public health volunteers and 2) questionnaires about knowledge and coronavirus 2019 preventive behaviors, the reliability scores of which were .94 and .93, respectively. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test. The result revealed as follows. After attending the program, knowledge and coronavirus 2019 preventive behaviors of the experimental group were significantly higher than before attending the program, and were higher than the comparative group (p<.001).