Volume 21, Issue 81 (8-2021)
refahj 2021, 21(81): 51-85 |
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Salehi S, Khosh Far G R, Mirzakhani S. (2021). Analysis of people's exposure to the corona virus: Using protection motivation theory. refahj. 21(81), 51-85.
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-3769-en.html
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-3769-en.html
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Introduction: Covid-19 disease was first diagnosed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It then spread around the world. The incidence and mortality rate of the disease has led governments to implement a set of public health guidelines and protocols (Broward et al., 2020). Depending on the situation, the guidelines ranged from simple health rules to social isolation or quarantine, which severely disrupted citizens’ daily lives. Corona disease has affected not only the medical system, but also other areas of society. This has raised serious concerns for citizens in all countries. However, pregnant women, families with children, the elderly, people with disabilities and low-income people suffer from disproportionate damage in epidemics and natural disasters. In the case of the Corona epidemic, all sections of the community feel threatened. Therefore, the outbreak of Corona virus and its consequences should be considered as one of the most important human social events in the 21st century. What distinguishes this outbreak is the global sense of weakness in human biological life and the need for a “sterile society” free from danger. It is now more than seven months since the corona virus appeared in the country, and while many “thought” that the prevalence of coronary heart disease was declining, the Ministry of Health announced that some of the country’s provinces, including Mazandaran province, were back. Mazandaran is in the red state (October 5, 2016). As in other parts of the world and in Iran, the success of public health guidelines in Mazandaran province depends on the willingness of people to observe them. Therefore, the present study seeks to investigate the issue that in the rural areas of Mazandaran province, what factors affect the compliance/non-compliance of health instructions and protocols?
Protection Motivation Theory is a theoretical model that seeks to explain the factors influencing the decision-making processes of individuals who engage in behaviors or, conversely, do not engage in behaviors to protect them from potential dangers. (Rogers, 2012). There are five main components to Rogers’ theory of protection motivation theory: severity (degree of exposure to risk), vulnerability (judgment of the outcome), accountability, effectiveness (awareness), and liability costs (financial and psychological). According to protection motivation theory, if a person believes that something is dangerous and something may happen, then he or she will adopt conservative behavior. Protection motivation theory is usually evaluated by developing an intention to adopt a protective behavior (Rainer, 2017). The presence of information sources in the theoretical model of protection motivation provides a basis for the individual to determine what a potential threat is and the potential value of its protective responses to that threat.
Method: The research method of the present study was descriptive-correlational type and for data collection a survey method was used employing a researcher-made questionnaire. The unit of analysis in this research is the person living in the village. The statistical population is the inhabitants of rural areas of Mazandaran in 1399 (2019). Due to the vastness of Mazandaran province, sampling of villages was done using multi-stage cluster sampling. In the first step, the samples were selected based on geographical division (East, Central and West). In the second stage, the situation of the region in terms of mountains, plains and coastal, was the criterion for selection. In the third stage, three villages were selected from each village. By placing the numbers in the Cochran’s formula, the sample size was determined to be 338 people. Simple random sampling method was used. In this study, face and structural validity was checked, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was applied to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, the value of which was obtained for personal protective behavior (0.75) and threat assessment and coping assessment (0.78).
Findings: Regarding to demographic variables, of 338 samples, 150 (44.4%) are male and 188 (55.6%) are female, of which nearly half of the respondents have declared their level of education as Bachelor’s. The average age of the respondents is 29.20 years old. The mean of independent research variables calculated from (5) are: perceived risk intensity (4.43), perceived vulnerability intensity (4.06), response costs (2.91), self-efficacy. The response (4.04) and the effectiveness of the response (4.50) were obtained. The mean of the dependent variable (personal protection behavior) was also calculated (3.97). There was no significant correlation between age and education with personal protective behavior. Respondents’ personal protection behavior was not different in terms of gender. Positive correlation between personal protective behavior and components (perceived risk severity, perceived severity of vulnerability, response costs, response self-efficacy and response effectiveness) with test values (-0.323-0.330 0.317 and 0.250) and significance levels (0.001 and <0.001) were obtained. This means that as long as people understand the severity of the danger and the severity of the subjects and their family’s vulnerability to the coronavirus, they will be more protective and responsible. Respondents’ belief in their ability to take preventive measures, spending material and immaterial money to make behaviors effective in reducing or eliminating risk, also led to the emergence of protective and responsible behaviors among respondents to the coronavirus. According to the results of regression analysis, response costs (0.647), self-efficacy (0.583), vulnerability (0.178), and effectiveness (0.094) predict the percentage of dependent variable changes. Examining the effect of protection motivation components (vulnerability, response costs, self-efficacy, and effectiveness) in the form of structural equations also showed that all protection motivation components affect individual protection behavior.
Discussion: Coronary heart disease has become a global phenomenon. A phenomenon that has transformed all levels of human life in different parts of the world, including biological, economic, social, psychological, cultural., etc. The present study has been prepared with the aim of recognizing the components of the theory of protection motivation affecting the protective behavior of the individuals. In the meantime, personal protective behavior refers to a set of behaviors that a person follows according to the health-care instructions of the National Corona Headquarters to fight against Corona virus. Such a behavior is influenced by motivation, empowerment, and evaluation of the effect of individual action. The main question that arises is that in the rural areas of Mazandaran province, what factors affect the compliance/non-compliance with health guidelines and protocols? In this research, protection motivation theory has been used as a theoretical framework to explain the research question. The results of the present study is consistent with the findings of Tzval et al. (2016), Rahimi and Shojaei (2015), Barati and Shojaei (2020), Prentice Don and Rogers (2000), Floyd et al. (2006), Rajandaran and Shanbagraman (2017), Minjongoli and Myung-san (2019) and Hawke et al. (2020). In the final evaluation, it can be said that the present study showed that protection motivation theory is a suitable theory to study the degree of protective behavior of individuals and the factors affecting it at the level of rural communities. In any case, the results showed that this theory and its components could explain people’s behaviors while facing a social problem such as corona virus disease and thus, can be regarded as a useful model for similar research studies in other rural areas.
Ethical consideration
The present article is extracted from the results of a research project entitled “Rural community and its exposure to the Corona virus: Factors affecting preventive behavior towards Corona among villagers” which is supported by the Fund for Support of Researchers and Technologists - Vice President for Science and Technology Republic. This support is highly appreciated. It should be noted that in order to collect the information of the questionnaire, first the objectives of the research were mentioned for the respondents and after obtaining their consent, the research questionnaire was completed.
Introduction: Covid-19 disease was first diagnosed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It then spread around the world. The incidence and mortality rate of the disease has led governments to implement a set of public health guidelines and protocols (Broward et al., 2020). Depending on the situation, the guidelines ranged from simple health rules to social isolation or quarantine, which severely disrupted citizens’ daily lives. Corona disease has affected not only the medical system, but also other areas of society. This has raised serious concerns for citizens in all countries. However, pregnant women, families with children, the elderly, people with disabilities and low-income people suffer from disproportionate damage in epidemics and natural disasters. In the case of the Corona epidemic, all sections of the community feel threatened. Therefore, the outbreak of Corona virus and its consequences should be considered as one of the most important human social events in the 21st century. What distinguishes this outbreak is the global sense of weakness in human biological life and the need for a “sterile society” free from danger. It is now more than seven months since the corona virus appeared in the country, and while many “thought” that the prevalence of coronary heart disease was declining, the Ministry of Health announced that some of the country’s provinces, including Mazandaran province, were back. Mazandaran is in the red state (October 5, 2016). As in other parts of the world and in Iran, the success of public health guidelines in Mazandaran province depends on the willingness of people to observe them. Therefore, the present study seeks to investigate the issue that in the rural areas of Mazandaran province, what factors affect the compliance/non-compliance of health instructions and protocols?
Protection Motivation Theory is a theoretical model that seeks to explain the factors influencing the decision-making processes of individuals who engage in behaviors or, conversely, do not engage in behaviors to protect them from potential dangers. (Rogers, 2012). There are five main components to Rogers’ theory of protection motivation theory: severity (degree of exposure to risk), vulnerability (judgment of the outcome), accountability, effectiveness (awareness), and liability costs (financial and psychological). According to protection motivation theory, if a person believes that something is dangerous and something may happen, then he or she will adopt conservative behavior. Protection motivation theory is usually evaluated by developing an intention to adopt a protective behavior (Rainer, 2017). The presence of information sources in the theoretical model of protection motivation provides a basis for the individual to determine what a potential threat is and the potential value of its protective responses to that threat.
Method: The research method of the present study was descriptive-correlational type and for data collection a survey method was used employing a researcher-made questionnaire. The unit of analysis in this research is the person living in the village. The statistical population is the inhabitants of rural areas of Mazandaran in 1399 (2019). Due to the vastness of Mazandaran province, sampling of villages was done using multi-stage cluster sampling. In the first step, the samples were selected based on geographical division (East, Central and West). In the second stage, the situation of the region in terms of mountains, plains and coastal, was the criterion for selection. In the third stage, three villages were selected from each village. By placing the numbers in the Cochran’s formula, the sample size was determined to be 338 people. Simple random sampling method was used. In this study, face and structural validity was checked, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was applied to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, the value of which was obtained for personal protective behavior (0.75) and threat assessment and coping assessment (0.78).
Findings: Regarding to demographic variables, of 338 samples, 150 (44.4%) are male and 188 (55.6%) are female, of which nearly half of the respondents have declared their level of education as Bachelor’s. The average age of the respondents is 29.20 years old. The mean of independent research variables calculated from (5) are: perceived risk intensity (4.43), perceived vulnerability intensity (4.06), response costs (2.91), self-efficacy. The response (4.04) and the effectiveness of the response (4.50) were obtained. The mean of the dependent variable (personal protection behavior) was also calculated (3.97). There was no significant correlation between age and education with personal protective behavior. Respondents’ personal protection behavior was not different in terms of gender. Positive correlation between personal protective behavior and components (perceived risk severity, perceived severity of vulnerability, response costs, response self-efficacy and response effectiveness) with test values (-0.323-0.330 0.317 and 0.250) and significance levels (0.001 and <0.001) were obtained. This means that as long as people understand the severity of the danger and the severity of the subjects and their family’s vulnerability to the coronavirus, they will be more protective and responsible. Respondents’ belief in their ability to take preventive measures, spending material and immaterial money to make behaviors effective in reducing or eliminating risk, also led to the emergence of protective and responsible behaviors among respondents to the coronavirus. According to the results of regression analysis, response costs (0.647), self-efficacy (0.583), vulnerability (0.178), and effectiveness (0.094) predict the percentage of dependent variable changes. Examining the effect of protection motivation components (vulnerability, response costs, self-efficacy, and effectiveness) in the form of structural equations also showed that all protection motivation components affect individual protection behavior.
Discussion: Coronary heart disease has become a global phenomenon. A phenomenon that has transformed all levels of human life in different parts of the world, including biological, economic, social, psychological, cultural., etc. The present study has been prepared with the aim of recognizing the components of the theory of protection motivation affecting the protective behavior of the individuals. In the meantime, personal protective behavior refers to a set of behaviors that a person follows according to the health-care instructions of the National Corona Headquarters to fight against Corona virus. Such a behavior is influenced by motivation, empowerment, and evaluation of the effect of individual action. The main question that arises is that in the rural areas of Mazandaran province, what factors affect the compliance/non-compliance with health guidelines and protocols? In this research, protection motivation theory has been used as a theoretical framework to explain the research question. The results of the present study is consistent with the findings of Tzval et al. (2016), Rahimi and Shojaei (2015), Barati and Shojaei (2020), Prentice Don and Rogers (2000), Floyd et al. (2006), Rajandaran and Shanbagraman (2017), Minjongoli and Myung-san (2019) and Hawke et al. (2020). In the final evaluation, it can be said that the present study showed that protection motivation theory is a suitable theory to study the degree of protective behavior of individuals and the factors affecting it at the level of rural communities. In any case, the results showed that this theory and its components could explain people’s behaviors while facing a social problem such as corona virus disease and thus, can be regarded as a useful model for similar research studies in other rural areas.
Ethical consideration
The present article is extracted from the results of a research project entitled “Rural community and its exposure to the Corona virus: Factors affecting preventive behavior towards Corona among villagers” which is supported by the Fund for Support of Researchers and Technologists - Vice President for Science and Technology Republic. This support is highly appreciated. It should be noted that in order to collect the information of the questionnaire, first the objectives of the research were mentioned for the respondents and after obtaining their consent, the research questionnaire was completed.
Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2020/10/23 | Accepted: 2021/02/15 | Published: 2021/09/14
Received: 2020/10/23 | Accepted: 2021/02/15 | Published: 2021/09/14
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