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EMPHNET 7th Regional Conference 2021: “Towards Public Health Resilience in the EMR: Breaking Barriers” (62)

Published on in Vol 8, No 1 (2022): Jan-Dec

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/36550, first published .
Willingness to Change Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Population of Rawalpindi City, Pakistan

Willingness to Change Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Population of Rawalpindi City, Pakistan

Willingness to Change Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Population of Rawalpindi City, Pakistan

Authors of this article:

Farhana Zain ul Abdein1 ;   Ume Sughra1
Article Authors Cited by Tweetations Metrics

    Abstract

    Al-Shifa School of Public Health, Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology, Al-Shifa Trust, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Corresponding Author:

    Farhana Zain ul Abdein, MBBS, MSPH

    Al-Shifa School of Public Health

    Pakistan Institute of Ophthalmology

    Al-Shifa Trust

    Jhelum Road

    Rawalpindi

    Pakistan

    Phone: 92 3325463065

    Email: dr.farhanazain@gmail.com


    Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the Pakistan government’s precautionary policies, people are not practicing the standard preventive measures. People need to change their health behaviors to control the transmission of the disease. The purpose of this study is to assess the willingness of people in Rawalpindi city to change/adapt their health behaviors during the pandemic and to associate this willingness with their various demographic variables during the pandemic. Willingness was determined through respondents’ knowledge, risk perceptions, attitudes, and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Objective: The main objectives of this study are to assess the general population’s willingness to change their health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in Rawalpindi city, Pakistan, and to determine the association between demographic variables and the willingness to change health behaviors.

    Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Rawalpindi city, Pakistan. A community household survey was conducted in 4 randomly selected union councils of Rawalpindi city. The survey was done via the systemic sampling of the households. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection, and it was made based on the guidelines of the National Institute of Health, Pakistan. It comprises 66 questions consisting of 5 sections. A Cronbach α of .92 was calculated with SPSS (IBM Corporation).

    Results: The results of the study showed that 89.2% of the respondents showed a willingness to change their health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A chi-square test of association revealed that 7 demographic characteristics were statistically significant, including age, gender, marital status, income, occupation, number of children, and the diagnosed comorbidities of respondents. A regression analysis showed that the monthly income of the respondents was the true predictor, with an odds ratio of 8.69.

    Conclusions: The respondents with higher scores for knowledge, risk perceptions, attitudes, and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic showed a high willingness to change their health behaviors in Rawalpindi city, Pakistan.

    iproc 2022;8(1):e36550

    doi:10.2196/36550

    Keywords

    willingness; health behaviors; attitudes; risk perceptions; practices; pandemic; household community survey 

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    Multimedia Appendix 1

    Willingness to change health behaviors during Covid-19 pandemic in the population of Rawalpindi City, Pakistan.

    PDF File (Adobe PDF File), 384 KB

    Edited by Y Khader; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 17.01.22; accepted 18.01.22; published 11.02.22

    Copyright

    ©Farhana Zain ul Abdein, Ume Sughra. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 11.02.2022.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in Iproceedings, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.iproc.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.