**6. Conclusions**

The key conclusion points are as follows: The peer groups' beliefs, self-efficacy, riskaverse behavior, pandemic knowledge, ease of pandemic prevention adoption, and perceived risk were revealed to be the driving forces of the individuals' willingness to adopt pandemic prevention. The inhibitors included the lack of trust in political will and a mythical attitude towards pandemic. However, moral values had a neutral role. Regarding the relative significance of intention-based critical factors, peer groups' beliefs, as well as the lack of trust in the political will, were ranked the highest. Simultaneously, the moral values factor was ranked the lowest in determining individuals' willingness to adopt pandemic prevention.

Based on the empirical results, the following policies are suggested. (1) The government should play a critical role at the central level (federal/provincial level) and the decentralized levels, including divisional, district (sub-division), Tehsil (district's subdivision), and union council (Tehsil's sub-division) levels, to win the trust of people at the grass-roots level. To this end, the government needs to develop and successfully implement favorable policies to improve its image in the public's eyes. If people realize that the government is performing well, they will listen to the government's guidelines in case of potential future pandemics. (2) The mythical attitudes of individuals lead them to refuse the adoption of pandemic prevention. Therefore, awareness campaigns on lethality and fatality of the pandemic must be organized, addressing this concern at all societal levels. Testing of communicable diseases such as COVID-19 at the grass-roots level may help remove individuals' mythical attitudes regarding the disease's existence. The mythical attitude is nurtured in the roots of culture. To uproot and modify such attitudes, education is the optimal solution, reshaping the behaviors of individuals in times of pandemics like COVID-19. Pandemic knowledge is something that promotes the adoption behaviors; therefore, individuals must be educated about the existence and transmission mechanisms of this pandemic irrespective of their age groups and income classes. Moreover, the government should expand the health sector's capacity, and job creation should be enhanced. More employed individuals in this sector will help educate the people about such fatal epidemics' seriousness.

(3) Perceived risk and risk-averse behavior were found be to among the significant contributors to individuals' willingness to adopt pandemic prevention. It means that once individuals recognize the pandemic's seriousness, vulnerability, and fatality, their objective of adopting pandemic prevention is strengthened. The high level of risk perception of communicable diseases (such as COVID-19) will substantially reform the individual's willingness to adopt pandemic prevention. (4) The ease of pandemic prevention adoption was proved a significant driving force in determining the willingness of individuals to adopt the prevention. It implies that the easier the adoption of pandemic prevention, the higher

the individuals' willingness to adopt such preventative measures. Pandemic prevention gear like surgical masks, hand sanitizers, and hand wash soaps are not affordable for every individual in society. Therefore, to promote individuals' WAPP, the provision of such protective measures free of cost or at discounted rates would aid in the adoption of pandemic prevention.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/ijerph18116167/s1, S1: Informed Consent Form.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.A.; Data curation, M.A., N.A., M.I. and G.J.; Formal analysis, M.A., G.J. and M.I.; Funding acquisition, N.A.; Writing—original draft, M.A.; Writing review & editing, N.A., G.J., H.W., M.K.A. and C.I. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This work was supported by the North Minzu University Annual Research Project (Grant Number PKST2020).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, China (No. 654-2).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all respondents during conducting the questionnaire survey.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data will be made available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

#### **Appendix A**

**Table A1.** Expert participants engaged in the assessment and testing of the questionnaire.


Notes: QAU: Quaid-i-Azam University, KEC: King Edward College, FCCU: Forman Christian College University, SIH: Shifa International Hospital, PIMS: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, AKUH: Aga Khan University Hospital, NIH: National Institute of Health.

#### **Appendix B**

**Table 2.** List of questions included in the questionnaire survey conducted.



**Table 2.** *Cont.*


**Table 2.** *Cont.*

**Notes:** the degree to agree with the affirmative response is classified as: 5 = "Totally agree", 4 = "Agree", 3 = "Neutral", 2 = "Disagree", 1 = "Totally disagree."

#### **References**

