Investigating Iranians’ Attitude, Practice, and Perceived Self-Efficacy towards COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors

Background: During the past two years, a new health crisis that affected the world was the emergence of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Currently, most health challenges and problems are mainly due to behavioral factors, so identifying these factors can play an important role in promoting public health. Therefore, this study was designed and conducted to investigate Iranians’ attitude, practice, and perceived self-efficacy towards COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Method: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted online among 387 Iranian cyberspace users selected by convenience sampling method and invited through social media messaging apps (Telegram, WhatsApp). The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire divided into 4 parts (demographic information, items related to attitude, practice, and perceived self-efficacy). The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney, analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation, and linear regression tests were used to analyze the collected data. Results: The results of the Pearson’s test showed that there was a direct and significant correlation between the participants’ attitude with practice (r = 0.23, p <0.001) and perceived self-efficacy (r = 0.21, p <0.001) regarding coronavirus preventive behaviors. There was also a direct and significant relationship between self-efficacy and practice (r = 0.46, p <0.001). The results of univariate regression test also showed that occupation (p=0.002, β=-0.16), marital status (p = 0.003, β=-0.15), attitude (p <0.001, β=0.23), and self-efficacy (p <0.001, β = 0.45) are predictive and influential variables of the participants’ practice towards coronavirus preventive behaviors. Conclusion: Various factors affect people's practice in relation to preventive behaviors. Paying attention to people's attitudes and self-efficacy can be considered in policies related to improving people's performance as well as planning future interventions to promote coronavirus preventive behaviors.