Why People Stayed Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Health Communication Across Four Countries.

Staying at home substantially reduces the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, understanding why people stayed at home by addressing its social cognitive determinants can help create more effective communication to change behaviors. This study analyzed this outcome through an extended model of the theory of planned behavior based on risk perception and personal norms in four countries: the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Taiwan. 1,196 individuals participated in this study through a questionnaire focused on planned behavior, moral norms, and risk perception. The data showed that intention and perceived behavioral control influenced behavior significantly, while attitude, injunctive norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norms, and risk perception influenced intention. With multigroup analysis and ANOVA, we verified significant differences in the estimates and mean scores across cultures, revealing the need for scholars to analyze outcomes based on geography and local political culture. Given that health communications played a key role in managing the pandemic, this study clarifies the social cognitive determinants of staying at home and how the local political culture can impact their influence. Thus, we provide an evidence-based prescription for focused communications.

Physical and psychological fatigue, and work performance among Brazilian workers during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic in Brazil.

The lockdown requirement, caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), led to people having to follow a work from home regime. This pandemic made workers more vulnerable, causing emotional disorders that impacted their work performance. This online survey aimed to identify the psychological and emotional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Brazilian workers, testing the predictive effect between physical and emotional fatigue factors, and expectations about their performance. The participants were 153 workers from different sectors or departments of the University of Brasilia following the work from home modality. To achieve the main aim of this study, the questionnaire 'Feeling Fatigue Scale' by Yoshitake, and the nine items of the 'Achievement' factor of the 'Well-being at Work' questionnaire by Paschoal and Tamayowere applied. Study data were collected between February and August 2020. Statistically significant differences were found between cognitive aspects (difficulties in attention to work, p = .001,) expectations regarding performance (p = .035), and the impact of fatigue on the body (p = .021) when comparing the profile of workers from the areas of exact sciences, health, and social and human sciences. Workers who reported more extreme difficulty in attention had lower expectations regarding the performance achieved in the exercise of their duties (R2 adjusted = .271, p < .001). The results demonstrate the importance of planning public policies aimed at promoting mental and physical health at work.

COVID-19 vaccination in Brazilian public security agents: are human values good predictors?

PurposeThe authors investigated the effect of basic human values in the prediction of COVID-19 vaccination behavior amongst public security agents in Brazil.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 15,313 Brazilian public security agents responded to the portrait values questionnaire and a COVID vaccination behavior measure. Multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) was used to observe the order of the predicted by the theory. For hypotheses, the authors ran a series of Structural equation modeling (SEM) with direct effects between values and vaccination rate.FindingsResults suggest that the values of conservation and self-transcendence positively predicted vaccination. A nonsignificative negative prediction was obtained for openness to change and self-enhancement values on vaccination behavior.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected using self-report questionnaires.Practical implicationsInstitutional management should encourage capacitation campaigns aimed at public security agents, enabling a significant increase in vaccine protection for the public security institutions.Social implicationsThe reinforcement of conservation and self-transcendence values lead to the perception of the vaccine as a measure of caring for people in general and for the members of the ingroup, hence motivating the vaccination behavior.Originality/valueThe findings confirm that values encourage individuals to be vaccinated, due to their intrinsic motivation. This relationship did not appear to be clearly tested by previous empirical studies.