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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions adopted a set of measures to ensure safe face-to-face teaching and to control potential outbreaks. However, the effectiveness of the implemented measures is dependent on the behavior of students, who are generally young, often displaced, living with other colleagues, and constantly seeking physical contact, which makes their behavior outside the institution also of particular relevance to controlling the pandemic. An online questionnaire was developed and applied to characterize the behaviors adopted by students inside and outside the higher education institution, as well as risk perception based on the health belief model (HBM) and unrealistic optimism, with the participation of 620 students from three Portuguese higher education institutions. The adoption of safe behaviors is related to a greater perception of the benefits and the severity of COVID-19. Unrealistic optimism also harms preventive behaviors. The behaviors least adopted by students concerning potential exposure to COVID-19 were disinfecting hands and equipment after use, as well as physical distancing from colleagues. Regarding behaviors adopted outside the institution, it was found that students did not avoid physical contact with colleagues and family members. These findings contribute to our understanding of student behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, help institutions understand if the applied strategies were effective or not, and denote the need to reinforce or improve the implemented strategies.
Description
H&TRC author gratefully acknowledges the FCT/MCTES national support through the UIDB/05608/2020 and UIDP/05608/2020, and IPL for funding the I&DICA - IPL/2021/Vaccin2You_ESTeSL Project.
Keywords
COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 Higher education Students Prevention Risk perception FCT_UIDP/05608/2020 FCT_UIDB/05608/2020 IPL/2021/Vaccin2You_ESTeSL
Citation
Peralta C, Silva MV, Dores AR, Almeida-Silva M, Pinto MV, Ramos D, et al. Preventive behaviors among higher education students in response to COVID-19: the role of risk perception. Safety. 2024;10(4):94.
Publisher
MDPI