The Effect of Educational Intervention Based on the Protection Motivation Theory in Promotion of Preventive Behaviors against COVID-19

Background: Considering the global prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the high rate of mortality due to the disease, it seems that performing COVID-19 preventive behaviors is a suitable solution to reduce the damage caused by the disease. Since office employees are at the high risk of morbidity, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of educational intervention based on protection motivation theory (PMT) on the promotion of COVID-19 preventive behaviors in the office employees in Bajestan City, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial with a control group. 164 employees working in governmental offices in Bajestan were selected using multi-stage random sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The designed educational program based on the PMT was conducted for the experimental group for one month, and the measurements were taken in three stages of pre-test, post-test, and follow-up using a questionnaire designed to predict COVID-19 preventive behaviors based on PMT. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Findings: The mean age was 38.21 ± 6.44 years in the experimental group and 36.73 ± 5.18 years in the control group. The majority of subjects in the experimental group (65, 79.3%) and in the control group (58, 70.7%) were men. The results of repeated measures ANCOVA indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between two groups in terms of all constructs of PMT (P < 0.05) after adjusting the effect of pre-test scores. But significance of correlation between time and educational group in all constructs except self-efficacy suggested that the effect of educational intervention on these constructs varied over time. Conclusion: The results of this study support the effectiveness of educational intervention in changing attitudes and behaviors related to COVID-19 prevention based on PMT