Factors Affecting Self-reported Compliance to the COVID-19 Health Protocol

Background. COVID-19 is dangerous due to its ability to cause severe disease and its rapid transmission from person to person via aerosolized droplets. The government established a Task Force on Accelerating the Handling of COVID-19, macro-scale social restrictions, and health protocols.

Objective. The purpose of this study was to identify compliance-related factors in following health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods. The study used a cross-sectional design involving 173 respondents recruited through incidental sampling. The questionnaire consisted of four sections that investigated demographic data, knowledge of COVID-19, penalties related to health protocols, and the behavior of respondents toward the health protocols. The validity and reliability tests involving 40 respondents were conducted with the minimum r value of 0.339 and Cronbach’s alpha of 0.78, respectively.

Results. More than half of the participants (51.4%) reported a good level of compliance with health protocols. There was a significant association between the level of compliance and the perception of sanctions (p = 0.000, r = 0.452). There was no relationship between demographics, health-related variables, and knowledge in adhering to health protocols (p >0.05).

Conclusion. Sanctions or penalties were the main factors influencing public compliance with health protocols. To boost public compliance, health promotion efforts within the community must be intensified.