Effectiveness of a Community-Based Intervention (CBI) Based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) in Preventing COVID-19 Infection among Bank Employees

Background: The COVID-19 virus has caused concern and fear among people worldwide.This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a Community-Based Intervention (CBI) based on the Protection Motivation Theory in preventing COVID-19 infection among bank employees. Materials and Methods:This research was a quasi-experimental study (pre-and postintervention).The study participants were 180 bank employees selected randomly from banks in Sirjan.The CBI was conducted over three months, and participants received educational interventions about promoting health-related behaviors and improving their working environment.Data were collected by a questionnaire with 62 questions in four parts: demographic information, knowledge, questions related to the structures of PMT, and questions about behaviors.Data was analyzed by paired t-test and Mc Nemar's test in SPSS23 software. Results:The mean age of participants was 41.6 ± 2.16.There were significant differences in the mean scores of knowledge and perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, response efficiency, rewards, self-efficacy, response cost, fear, and protection motivation after the CBI (p<0.05).Also, health behaviors improved significantly after the CBI (P<0.001); for example, the prevalence of regular hand washing among the target group increased from 36.6% to 93.4%.Conclusion: The results showed that Protection Motivation Theory was effective in improving COVID-19 prevention strategies among bank employees and may help prevent infection and control this disease outbreak.