Health Literacy and Health Belief Model: Factors associated with COVID-19 Protective Behaviors

Introduction: Health literacy (HL) and preventive behaviors are necessary to respond proactively to pandemic situations like COVID-19.Methods: The cross-sectional study was performed in Iran. 380 participants 18-65 years of age were recruited randomly from 4 the primary Health Care Services Centers (HCSCs) in urban and rural areas of the county by medical records. To measure the data were used Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA), HBM-based researcher-made questionnaire and COVID-19 protective behaviors (CPBs) checklist.Results: Based on findings, CPBs associated statistically with all cognitive measures and HL (p-value < 0.05). High CPBs were significantly associated with gender (ß=0.182; p-value=0.001) and education level (ß=0.329; p-value=0.001). An additional, 30.4 percent of the variation in CPBs was explained by cognitive factors as predictor variables (step 2) (F=38.77; p-value < 0.05). Step 3 included the addition of HL factors, which explained an extra 2.8 percent of the variance. In total, demographic characteristics, cognitive factors and HL explained 45 percent of the variance in CPBs.Conclusion: HL and cognitive factors had a potential and determinative role in the CPBs. These factors can be considered in prevention programs and control of pandemics by health care providers and policy makers for the same problems in the future.

Health Literacy and Health Belief Model: Factors associated with COVID-19 Protective Behaviors Keywords:

Health Literacy , Health Belief Model , COVID-19 , Protective Behaviors , Iran