Socio-Cultural Factors, Attitude and Belief on Compliance to Covid-19 Preventive Measures among Abuja Residents, Nigeria: Pivotal Roleof Health Education

Abstract

Socio-cultural factors, attitude and belief have been identified as major factors of diseases compliance and are germane to preventing COVID-19 because of their direct influence in the preventive process of COVID-19. There is dearth of data concerning these variables in the spread of COVID-19. This study examined the influence of socio-cultural factors, attitude, and belief in the prevention of COVID-19 in Abuja, Nigeria and the pivotal role of health education in order to ascertain how the listed factors affect compliance of Abuja residents in preventing the spread of  the disease. A cross-sectional survey design, and 338 participants selected using snowball sampling technique. A self-structured validated questionnaire (coefficient reliability 8.0) administered electronically for three weeks (June 2020) was used for data collection. Data analyzed using frequency counts, percentages and mean for demographic data. Hypotheses tested using inferential statistics of regression, T-test, ANOVA and Schefft’s Post Hoc at 0.05 significance level. Attitude and belief were significant predictors of participants’ preventive measures, F (2, 335) = 6.373 where p < 0.05; indicating that increase in attitude and belief of the participants led to taking more precautionary measures of COVID-19. Family type of the participants influenced compliance to COVID-19 (T (336) = -3.109 where p < 0.05). Other socio-cultural factors: occupation, education, ethnicity, and income influenced participants’ compliance to COVID-19 prevention (p < 0.05). Religion and neighborhood did not influence the participants’ compliance to COVID-19 prevention (p > 0.05). Health education is a veritable tool to ameliorate socio-cultural factors influencing compliance to COVID-19 and has a pivotal role to play in preventing the spread of COVID-19. It should be positioned proactively to reduce the impact of the influence of socio-cultural factors on the spread of COVID-19. Similar studies should be carried out in other parts of Nigeria for comparison.