Background

The emergence of a new pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a unique challenge for public health (all age and sex groups).

Objective

This study aimed to explore the adolescents’ perceptions of preventive behaviors to avoid COVID-19 disease based on the health belief model (HBM).

Method

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 797adolescents (aged between 12 and 18 years old), who were 7th-12th -grade students of 24 randomly selected schools from 28th May to June 28, 2020 in Isfahan, Iran. An online self-administered questionnaire was adapted to measure the adolescents’ perceived threats, barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action toward protective behaviors.

Results

Findings indicated that the adolescents' mean age was 14.7 (SD = 1.7) and 53.7% of them were female. Regardless of gender difference, there was a significant positive correlation between the adolescents' protective behaviors and their self-efficacy (r = 0.62, P < 0.001), perceived benefit (r = 29, P < 0.001), and perceived severity (r = 0.15, P < 0.001), while there was a significant negative correlation between the adolescents’ protective behaviors and their perceived susceptibility (r = −0.11, P < 0.001), as well as their perceived barrier (r = −0.21, P < 0.001). The result of the Hierarchical regression analysis also revealed that the HBM model had a significant predictive power for preventing measures towards coronavirus disease in adolescents (Adj R² = 0.46, p < 0.001). The results also showed that self-efficacy was the strongest predictor (β = 0.59, P < 0.001) in explaining protective behaviors in adolescents.

Conclusion

In the context of coronavirus disease pandemic in adolescents, the health belief model could provide a useful framework for planners to develop educational programs. Moreover, in such a context, strategies to promote self-efficacy in adolescents should be considered more carefully to help them improve their protective behaviors.

中文翻译：

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与青少年 COVID-19 预防行为相关的因素：应用健康信念模型

背景

由新型冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 引起的新型大流行的出现是对公共卫生（所有年龄和性别群体）的独特挑战。

客观的

本研究旨在基于健康信念模型 (HBM) 探讨青少年对预防 COVID-19 疾病的预防行为的看法。

方法

这项横断面研究对 797 名青少年（年龄在 12 至 18 岁之间）进行，他们是 2020 年 5 月 28 日至 6 月 28 日在伊朗伊斯法罕随机选择的 24 所学校的 7 至 12 年级学生。对在线自填问卷进行了调整，以衡量青少年感知到的威胁、障碍、好处、自我效能以及采取保护性行为的线索。

结果

调查结果显示青少年的平均年龄为 14.7 (SD = 1.7)，其中 53.7% 为女性。无论性别差异如何，青少年的保护行为与自我效能感（r = 0.62，P < 0.001）、感知收益（r = 29，P < 0.001）和感知严重性（r = 0.15，P < 0.001），而青少年的保护行为与其感知易感性（r = −0.11，P < 0.001）以及感知障碍（r = −0.21，P < 0.001）之间存在显着负相关). 分层回归分析的结果还表明，HBM 模型对于预防青少年冠状病毒病的措施具有显着的预测能力（Adj R ² = 0.46，p < 0.001）。结果还表明，自我效能感是解释青少年保护行为的最强预测因子（β = 0.59，P < 0.001）。

结论

在青少年冠状病毒疾病大流行的背景下，健康信念模型可以为规划者制定教育计划提供有用的框架。此外，在这种情况下，应更仔细地考虑提高青少年自我效能的策略，以帮助他们改善保护行为。