Purpose

This study investigated the impact of conspiracy beliefs on fear of Covid-19 and health protective behavior of university students in Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted at three universities in Punjab (e.g. two public sectors and one private sector) with permission from concerned authorities for data collection. A total of 374 responses were received that were analyzed by applying both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings

The results indicated the prevalence of conspiracy beliefs and fear of Covid-19 among university students of two public sector universities and one private sector university. Furthermore, the conspiracy beliefs of university students predicted their fear of Covid-19. However, conspiracy beliefs did not predict the health protective behavior of university students.

Research limitations/implications

These results had serious implications for public health in Pakistan demonstrating the critical need for health education and promotion as individual preparedness along with system preparedness is essential to combat Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic. These results are useful for policymakers, healthcare professionals, university administration and library staff for making evidence-based decisions toward health education and promotion related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Originality/value

It is hoped that the present study would make an invaluable contribution to existing research on promotional health in general and the role of conspiracy beliefs in putting public health at risk in particular as limited studies have been published so far.

中文翻译：

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阴谋信念对 Covid-19 恐惧和健康保护行为的影响：以大学生为例

目的

本研究调查了阴谋信念对巴基斯坦大学生对 Covid-19 的恐惧和健康保护行为的影响。

设计/方法/方法

经有关当局许可，在旁遮普省的三所大学（例如两所公共部门和一所私营部门）使用在线问卷进行了横断面调查。共收到 374 份答复，这些答复通过应用描述性和推理性统计进行了分析。

发现

结果表明，两所公立大学和一所私立大学的大学生普遍存在阴谋信仰和对 Covid-19 的恐惧。此外，大学生的阴谋论预测了他们对 Covid-19 的恐惧。然而，阴谋论并不能预测大学生的健康保护行为。

研究限制/影响

这些结果对巴基斯坦的公共卫生产生了严重影响，表明对健康教育和促进的迫切需要，因为个人准备和系统准备对于对抗 Covid-19 大流行和信息流行病至关重要。这些结果对于政策制定者、医疗保健专业人员、大学管理人员和图书馆工作人员很有用，以便就与 Covid-19 大流行相关的健康教育和推广做出循证决策。

原创性/价值

希望目前的研究能够对现有的关于促进健康的研究做出宝贵的贡献，特别是因为迄今为止发表的研究有限，阴谋信仰在使公共卫生处于危险之中的作用。