More than a year into the pandemic: Do higher education students still practice protective behaviors against COVID‑19?
نویسندگان
1 Highschool Department, Assumption Iloilo Inc., Iloilo, Philippines
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4 College of Nursing, West Visayas State University, Iloilo, Philippines
5 Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
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doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: The exponential increase of cases and the emergence of the new COVID‑19variants continue to be a challenge. It remains crucial to assess whether or not minimum healthstandards against COVID‑19 are consistently followed. This study determined the higher educationstudents’ practice of protective measures against COVID‑19 of more than a year into the pandemic.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire web survey, cross‑sectional study was conductedamong higher education students (n = 2309) of a public university in the Philippines. Data wereanalyzed using the SPSS software.RESULTS: Results indicated that students generally had a high practice of COVID‑19 preventivemeasures. However, only 45.9% always practice physical distancing measures, and only 35.9%always seek information related to COVID‑19 after more than a year into the pandemic. Female,married, graduate level, with a monthly family income of PHP 10,000 and above, and personalknowledge of someone who tested for COVID‑19 had a significantly higher practice of COVID‑19protective measures. Older age, higher general self‑reported health status, and higher intentionto comply with recommended protective health behaviors were significantly correlated with higherpractice of preventive measures against COVID‑19.CONCLUSION: After more than a year of being into the pandemic, students still practice preventivehealth behaviors, however, this is not done consistently. As the pandemic is still not over in the countryand many parts of the world, continuous monitoring and a reminder to practice minimum protectivehealth protocols are needed to mitigate and prevent the spread of COVID‑19.
