Factors influencing effective prevention behavior among medical care workers during epidemic

  Objective  To identify the influencing factors of effective prevention behaviors among medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

  Methods  A total of 863 medical care workers were recruited from hospitals of some regions in China from February to March, 2020. Depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS), the perceived social support scale (PSSS), simplified coping style questionnaire (SCSQ) and some self-developed scales were used to collect information of the study participants. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the correlation between variables; Mplus was used to build a structural equation model to analyze the direct and indirect factors affecting the effective prevention behavior of these medical personnel.

  Results  The score of effective preventive behavior of 863 medical staff was (50.18 ± 4.99). Anxiety was weakly negatively correlated with effective prevention behavior (r = - 0.139, P < 0.05), and positive coping style, attitude, perceived severity, behavior skills and perceived social support were weakly positively correlated with effective prevention behavior (r = 0.258, 0.104, 0.131, 0.302, 0.276, P < 0.05, respectively). The fitting degree of the established structural equation model was good (χ²/df = 2.829, CFI = 0.931, TLI = 0.920, RMSEA = 0.046, SRMR = 0.045). The perceived social support had an impact on effective prevention behavior, and its total effect(β = 0.270) and direct effect(β = 0.134) were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Positive coping style could play a part of intermediary role between understanding social support and effective prevention behavior(β = 0.049, P = 0.019), behavioral skills could play a partial intermediary role between understanding social support and effective prevention of behavior(β = 0.061, P = 0.002), anxiety, attitude and behavior skills could play a chain intermediary role between understanding social support and effectively preventing behavior(β = 0.002, P = 0.012), and anxiety, perceived severity, and behavioral skills can play a chain intermediary role between understanding social support and effectively preventing behavior(β = - 0.001, P = 0.028), with the ratio of intermediary effect to total effect 0.181, 0.226, 0.007, - 0.004 (P < 0.05), respectively.

  Conclusions  By improving the understanding of social support, positive attitude and coping strategies, and improving the behavior skills can promote medical staff to take effective preventive behavior.