Factors Relationship to Preventive Behavior of COVID-19 among First-Year Students in Suratthani Rajabhat University

Abstract

This study employed a cross-sectional study design to examine preventive behaviors of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to determine factors related to preventive behaviors of COVID-19 among first-year student in Suratthani Rajabhat University. The samples consisted of 377 students by stratified random sampling. The research instrument was an online questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.89 and data were collected between February and April 2022. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient and ETA correlation. The results showed that: receiving information through social media platform, attitudes, preventive behavior of COVID-19 were at high level (3.87±0.87, 4.06±0.84 and 4.25±0.92, respectively) as well as had a high level of perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and perceived benefits of COVID-19 prevention (4.07±0.64, 4.09±0.70 and 4.06±0.70, respectively). Perceived barriers were at moderate level (3.34±1.10). However, receiving information through social media platform was positively correlated with high level of COVID-19 preventive behavior with statistical significance of 0.01 (r=0.999). The findings of this study could serve as a guideline for planning interventions to promote and modify preventive behaviors, particularly by encouraging access to credible information sources, enhancing perceptions of susceptibility and disease severity, and fostering positive attitudes.These efforts may improve the effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention and control.