The impact of government actions and risk perception on the promotion of self-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Autor: Alvarez-Galvez J; Department of Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Public Health, University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain., Anastasiou A; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus., Lamnisos D; Department of Health Sciences, European University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus., Constantinou M; Department of Psychology, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus., Nicolaou C; Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus., Papacostas S; Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, Nicosia, Cyprus., Vasiliou VS; Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom., McHugh L; School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland., Lubenko J; Psychological Laboratory, Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare, Riga Stradings University, Riga, Latvia., Ruiz FJ; Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Bogotá, Colombia., Paez-Blarrina M; Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain., Montesinos F; Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.; Instituto ACT, Madrid, Spain., Valdivia-Salas S; Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain., Merwin RM; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America., Karekla M; Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus., Gloster AT; Division of Clinical Psychology & Intervention Science, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland., Kassianos AP; Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.; Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.; Department of Applied Health Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2023 Apr 17; Vol. 18 (4), pp. e0284433. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Apr 17 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284433
Abstrakt: Introduction: We aim to understand the factors that drive citizens of different countries to adhere to recommended self-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Survey data was obtained through the COVID-19 Impact project. We selected countries that presented a sufficiently complete time series and a statistically relevant sample for running the analysis: Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. To identify country-specific differences in self-protective behaviors, we used previous evidence and change-point detection analysis to establish variations across participating countries whose effect was then assessed by means of interrupted series analysis.
Results: A high level of compliance with health and governmental authorities' recommendations were generally observed in all included countries. The level of stress decreased near the period when countries such as Cyprus, Greece or the United Kingdom relaxed their prevention behavior recommendations. However, this relaxation of behaviors did not occur in countries such as Germany, Ireland, or the United States. As observed in the change-point detection analysis, when the daily number of recorded COVID-19 cases decreased, people relaxed their protective behaviors (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland), although the opposite trend was observed in Switzerland.
Discussion: COVID-19 self-protective behaviors were heterogeneous across countries examined. Our findings show that there is probably no single winning strategy for exiting future health crises, as similar interventions, aimed to promote self-protective behaviors, may be received differently depending on the specific population groups and on the particular geographical context in which they are implemented.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Alvarez-Galvez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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