Determinant factors in personal decision-making to adopt covid-19 prevention measures in Chile

The pandemic has challenged countries to develop stringent measures to reduce infections and keep the population healthy. However, the greatest challenge is understanding the process of adopting self-care measures by individuals in different countries. In this research, we sought to understand the behavior of individuals who take self-protective action. We selected the risk homeostasis approach to identify relevant variables associated with the risk of contagion and the Protective Action Decision Model to understand protective decision-making in the pandemic. Subsequently, we conducted an exploratory survey to identify whether the same factors, as indicated in the literature, impact Chile’s adoption of prevention measures. The variables gender, age, and trust in authority behave similarly to those found in the literature. However, socioeconomic level, education, and media do not impact the protection behaviors adopted to avoid contagion. Furthermore, the application of the Protective Action Decision Model is adequate to understand the protective measures in the case of a pandemic. Finally, women have a higher risk perception and adopt more protective measures, and in contrast, young people between 18 and 30 years of age are the least concerned about COVID-19 infection. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Notas

Indexación: Scopus

Palabras clave

COVID-19, Exploratory study, Prevention measures adoption, Protective Action Decision Model, Risk homeostasis, Risk perception

Citación

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Open Access Volume 18, Issue 151July 2021 Article number 8131

DOI

10.3390/ijerph18158131

URI

https://repositorio.unab.cl/xmlui/handle/ria/53966

Colecciones

FIng - Artículos de Revista

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