Community preventive behaviour and perception on the severity of COVID-19 disease in Indonesia, 2021-2022: Structural equation modelling

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the determinants of community preventive behavior in complying with the Indonesian regulations to prevent COVID-19 local transmission. Methods: A cross-sectional study used to collect the data via an online cross using a form created from a google questionnaire forms. A total of 1,802 respondents were gathered at a single point in time. The authors used the Health Belief Model (HBM) approach to measure and create a model of preventive behavior for COVID-19. Results: The findings showed that self-efficacy and perceived barriers had statistically significant relationships with preventive behavior. However, the goodness of fit index showed that the proposed model was not fit for the data, which means that it was not fit to describe the empirical phenomenon under study. Conclusions: This study found that more than half of the respondents still had low perceived susceptibility and severity. Only a few respondents had significant barriers to implementing COVID-19 transmission prevention behaviors. Still, most respondents had low perceived self-efficacy, and only 60% had good behaviors related to COVID-19 prevention. We recommended increasing perceived susceptibility and severity by providing the correct information about COVID-19 in the local cultural context.