What Determines Preventive Behavior among the Public During the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea?: A National Cross Sectional Study

Objectives: Becker’s Health Belief Model (HBM) aids in explaining why individuals accept or reject preventive health services or adopt healthy behaviors. This study investigate the modified the HBM for the preventive behaviors for COVID-19 in Korea during outbreak. Methods: Participants consisted of 322 South Korean in nationwide. Data were collected by questionnaires from April 3 to April 15, 2020. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0, AMOS 22.0 program. Results: The assessment of the modified model indicated an acceptable fit, with Normed χ 2=2.86 (p<0.001), GFI=0.91, AGFI=0.85, CFI=0.90, RMR=0.05, TLI=0.86, NFI=0.86, RMSEA=0.07. Perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy were found to affect publics’ preventive behaviors for COVID-19 significantly, but self-efficacy was seen as the strongest influencing factor. In the serious situation of pandemic, the governments that determines the policy need to develop more detailed methods to confidently encourage individuals to achieve their individuals’ health. Although stigma did not affect preventive behaviors in this results, it could pose a major barrier to health-seeking behavior. Conclusions: For the community healthcare, it is required to consider the HBM structure as a social variable for the disease prevention.