Perspectives and Factors Affecting the Preventive Behavior Pertinent to COVID-19 among School Employees in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Design and Participants
2.2. Questionnaire Design
- (1)
- Personal information including socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, and household income), occupational information (length of working’s experience, school affiliation, and school roles), personal preventive activities (COVID-19 vaccination status and cost of COVID-19 prevention per month)
- (2)
- School employees perceptions of the readiness of the school and employees for the re-opening of the school for on-site education (possible answers were the four categories: “strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree”, and “strongly disagree”) and the employees concerns regarding the re-opening of schools for on-site education (again, possible answers were from four categories: “very concerned and do not agree with school opening”, “very concerned but agree with school opening”, “moderately concerned and agree with school opening”, and “slightly concerned”)
- (3)
- The questions for assessing school employees’ agreement and actions on COVID-19 preventive practices were designed in accordance with the measures and recommendations for school employees in the prevention of the spread of the epidemic of COVID-19 in Thailand. These measures and recommendations were developed by the national committee, including public health experts and infectious disease specialists from the department of health, and educational experts from the ministry of education. These consisted of eleven preventive measures to be performed by the employees to prevent the spread of the disease in school. This part of questionnaire was divided into two sub sections including the participant’s opinion with regard to every measure (possible answers being “agree” or “disagree” to each measure) and what were the actions of the participants as regards the carrying out of these preventive measures (possible answers were “consistently performed”, “partially performed”, and “not performed”). The reliability test of 11 questions for assessing school employees’ agreements and actions in accordance with the preventive measures obtained a Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of 0.83 and 0.89, respectively (Table S1).
2.3. Statistical Analysis
2.4. Ethical Considerations
3. Results
3.1. Characteristics of the Participants
3.2. Opinion Regarding the Measures and Recommendations for School Re-Opening
3.3. Factors Affecting the Action of Participants
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Characteristics | n = 402 | |
---|---|---|
n | % | |
Age (years), mean ± SD | 38.4 | ±11.1 |
Gender | ||
Female | 299 | 74.4 |
Male | 103 | 25.6 |
School affiliation | ||
Government school | 65 | 16.2 |
Private school | 317 | 78.9 |
Demonstration school | 20 | 4.9 |
Length of working’s experience, median (IQR) | 10 | (4–20) |
School roles | ||
Teaching | 362 | 90.1 |
Non-teaching | 40 | 9.9 |
Income (baht/month) | ||
≤20,000 | 209 | 52.0 |
20,001–30,000 | 119 | 29.6 |
30,001–40,000 | 28 | 7.0 |
40,001–50,000 | 30 | 7.4 |
50,001–60,000 | 12 | 3.0 |
>60,000 | 4 | 1.0 |
Cost for COVID-19 prevention (baht/month) | ||
<100 | 58 | 14.4 |
100–300 | 176 | 43.8 |
>300 | 168 | 41.8 |
COVID-19 vaccination | ||
No | 11 | 2.7 |
Incomplete | 26 | 6.5 |
Complete | 365 | 90.8 |
COVID-19 Prevention Measures | Agreement | Action | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agree | Disagree | Consistently Performed | Partially Performed | Not Performed | ||||||
n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | |
1. You must follow the information on the epidemic situation from reliable sources. | 400 | 99.5 | 2 | 0.5 | 387 | 96.3 | 15 | 3.7 | - | - |
2. You must observe your own abnormal symptoms. If there are any respiratory symptoms, you should stop working and consult a medical team immediately. | 400 | 99.5 | 2 | 0.5 | 388 | 96.5 | 11 | 2.7 | 3 | 0.8 |
3. You must strictly follow preventive measures such as washing your hands often, wearing a cloth mask or a mask and keeping distance between people and avoid going to crowded places. | 402 | 100.0 | - | - | 393 | 97.8 | 9 | 2.2 | - | - |
4. You must inform parents of supervising students bringing their own personal items and protective equipment to school. | 399 | 99.3 | 3 | 0.7 | 379 | 94.3 | 20 | 5.0 | 3 | 0.7 |
5. You must communicate knowledge. Advice or provision of public relations materials to prevent and reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. | 399 | 99.3 | 3 | 0.7 | 370 | 92.0 | 27 | 6.7 | 5 | 1.3 |
6. You must clean the teaching aids or equipment that is a high-risk touch point after every use. | 397 | 98.8 | 5 | 1.2 | 379 | 94.3 | 19 | 4.7 | 4 | 1.0 |
7. You must supervise the seating arrangements within the school premises in accordance with the basic principle, the distance between people is at least 1–2 m. | 399 | 99.3 | 3 | 0.7 | 382 | 95.0 | 18 | 4.5 | 2 | 0.5 |
8. You must inspect, supervise, and follow up on student attendance. | 400 | 99.5 | 2 | 0.5 | 386 | 96.0 | 13 | 3.2 | 3 | 0.8 |
9. You must perform health screening for everyone who enters the school according to the procedures. | 392 | 97.5 | 10 | 2.5 | 379 | 94.3 | 19 | 4.7 | 4 | 1.0 |
10. You must observe groups of students with behavioural problems or students who do not cooperate with the measures set by the teacher in order to receive assistance. | 400 | 99.5 | 2 | 0.5 | 384 | 95.5 | 13 | 3.2 | 5 | 1.3 |
11. You must communicate your knowledge of stress and the stress management process for students and personnel in educational institutions. | 396 | 98.5 | 6 | 1.5 | 367 | 91.3 | 30 | 7.5 | 5 | 1.2 |
Perceptions of School’s Employees | Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | ||||
n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | |
Your school was ready for on-site education. | 186 | 46.3 | 181 | 45.0 | 24 | 6.0 | 11 | 2.7 |
Your school staff were ready for on-site education. | 199 | 49.5 | 181 | 45.0 | 16 | 4.0 | 6 | 1.5 |
School Employees Concerns | Very Concerned and not Agree with School Opening | Very Concerned but Agree with School Opening | Moderately Concerned and Agree with School Opening | Slightly Concerned | ||||
n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | n | (%) | |
Concerned regarding school re-opening for on-site education. | 90 | 22.4 | 180 | 44.8 | 98 | 24.4 | 34 | 8.4 |
Factors | aOR | 95% CI | p-Value |
---|---|---|---|
Characteristics | |||
Age | 1.03 | 0.98 to 1.08 | 0.263 |
Gender | |||
Male | 0.43 | 0.23 to 0.80 | 0.008 ** |
Female | (ref.) | ||
School affiliation | |||
Private school | 1.52 | 0.70 to 3.28 | 0.289 |
University demonstration school | 0.76 | 0.16 to 3.42 | 0.724 |
Government school | (ref.) | ||
Length of working’s experience | 0.98 | 0.93 to 1.04 | 0.558 |
School roles | |||
Teaching | 1.39 | 0.55 to 3.52 | 0.487 |
Non-teaching | (ref.) | ||
Teachers’ perceptions and concern | |||
Your school was ready for on-site education | |||
Strongly agree | 2.03 | 0.28 to 14.59 | 0.478 |
Agree | 2.50 | 0.42 to 14.82 | 0.312 |
Disagree | 1.17 | 0.18 to 7.35 | 0.870 |
Strongly disagree | (ref.) | ||
Your school staff were ready for on-site education | |||
Strongly agree | 4.53 | 0.42 to 48.78 | 0.212 |
Agree | 1.56 | 0.18 to 13.61 | 0.688 |
Disagree | 1.85 | 0.18 to 19.17 | 0.606 |
Strongly disagree | (ref.) | ||
Concern regarding school opening for on-site education | |||
Very concerned and not in agreement with school opening | 3.78 | 1.04 to 13.70 | 0.043 * |
Very concerned but agree with school opening | 1.79 | 0.60 to 5.33 | 0.298 |
Moderately concerned and agree with school opening | 2.50 | 0.75 to 8.26 | 0.134 |
Slightly concerned | (ref.) | ||
Agreement regarding the measures and recommendations for the COVID-19 prevention and control in school | |||
≥2 disagreements | 0.03 | 0.01 to 0.23 | 0.001 ** |
1 disagreement | 0.04 | 0.01 to 0.19 | <0.001 ** |
All agree | (ref.) |
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Assavanopakun, P.; Promkutkao, T.; Promkutkeo, S.; Sirikul, W. Perspectives and Factors Affecting the Preventive Behavior Pertinent to COVID-19 among School Employees in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 5662. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095662
Assavanopakun P, Promkutkao T, Promkutkeo S, Sirikul W. Perspectives and Factors Affecting the Preventive Behavior Pertinent to COVID-19 among School Employees in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(9):5662. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095662
Chicago/Turabian StyleAssavanopakun, Pheerasak, Tharntip Promkutkao, Suchat Promkutkeo, and Wachiranun Sirikul. 2022. "Perspectives and Factors Affecting the Preventive Behavior Pertinent to COVID-19 among School Employees in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 9: 5662. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095662