COVID-19 and hepatitis B Ambassador of Surabaya, Indonesia: Motivation, commitment, and knowledge of youth generation towards health programs in the pandemic era

ABSTRACT

Background: To curb Corona Virus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and Hepatitis B further spread, the local Health Ministry collaborated with local communities to build COVID-19 and Hepatitis B Ambassador. This program utilizes the youth generation to support health promotion and health prevention. This study aims to evaluate the motivation, commitment, and knowledge of the youth generation as very few studies have attempted to analyze them. Methods: Fifty-seven participants who participated in the Ambassador program were voluntarily enrolled in the study. We conducted an online survey and presented them with a questionnaire while monitoring their progress in the live video call. The qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed statistically to find the correlation between the variables. Results: The youths' motivation for joining health programs comprises benefit-driven motivation and mostly altruistic motivation. Most of the youth participants gave a high number of commitment percentages and good opinions regarding both disease management by the local government. There is a significant correlation between the participants' commitment with their knowledge regarding Surabaya and COVID-19 (p<0.001), but not with hepatitis B (p=0.153). There is a significant positive correlation between participants' knowledge of Surabaya city with knowledge of COVID-19 (r=0.255;p=0.018) and Hepatitis B (r=0.331;p=0.003). The participants' age affects their commitment significantly (p<0.001). Conclusion: The motivation, commitment, and knowledge of the youth generation that joining the health ambassador program were correlated with each other. These findings might give an insight, especially for the government to encourage the youth generation to help supporting health promotion and health prevention. © 2021 Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved.