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. 2020 Nov:190:109995.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109995. Epub 2020 Jul 27.

Perception-based influence factors of intention to adopt COVID-19 epidemic prevention in China

Munir Ahmad  1 , Khadeeja Iram  2 , Gul Jabeen  3
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Perception-based influence factors of intention to adopt COVID-19 epidemic prevention in China

Munir Ahmad et al. Environ Res. 2020 Nov.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: The researches investigating the influence factors of epidemic prevention are not only scarce, but also provide a gap in the domain of perception-based influence factors of intention to adopt COVID-19 epidemic prevention.

Objective: This work has attempted to examine the perception-based influence factors of individuals' intention to adopt COVID-19 epidemic prevention in a modified behavioral framework.

Theoretical framework: A behavioral framework composed of the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior is developed to incorporate some additional perception-based influence factors.

Methods: A partial least square-based path analysis has been employed to estimate the path coefficients of those factors in terms of drivers, barriers, and neutral factors based on questionnaire data of 302 respondents from six universities and two hospitals in China.

Results: Among the perception-based influence factors, governments' guidelines on epidemic prevention is found to be the most important and influential factor, which was followed by risk perception. Finally, attitude towards epidemic prevention exhibited the least degree of impact on individuals' intention to adopt epidemic prevention. Moral norms did not show any contribution to individuals' intention to adopt epidemic prevention.

Conclusion: Concerning importance ranking, the governments' guidelines on epidemic prevention, risk perception, and epidemic knowledge are revealed as the top three drivers of individuals' intention to adopt epidemic prevention, while the perceived feasibility to adopt epidemic prevention is found to be a barrier. Moreover, moral norms is identified to have an insignificant influence on individuals' intention to adopt epidemic prevention. Given the empirical results, dissemination of Governments' guidelines on epidemic prevention, proper risk perception, and knowledge about epidemic would help prevent the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak within China and worldwide.

Keywords: Epidemic knowledge; Governments' guidelines on epidemic prevention; Modified behavioral framework; Risk aversion; Risk perception.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A modified behavioral framework depicting the influence factors of individuals' intention to adopt epidemic prevention.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Study site.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The relative importance of perception-based factors influencing the individuals' intention to adopt epidemic prevention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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