Поведение в области здоровья в россии во время пандемии covid-19

Результаты масштабного опроса по здоровью, связанному с пандемией, в России

<li>66.9% респондентов были женщины</li>
<li>Возрастной диапазон: от 16 до 82 лет (средний возраст 25.6 ± 10.8 лет)</li>
<li>Жители различных федеральных округов России</li>
<li>26.3% участников сообщили о наличии ранее перенесенного заболевания COVID-19</li>

Воспринимаемая уязвимость и Профилактическое поведение

Роль пола, возраста, образования и веры в заговоры COVID-19

Распределение поведенческих типов участников по полу показало, что большая часть мужчин составляли поведенческие типы Рациональный и Отрицающий (29.3% и 28.6% соответственно), в то время как женщины в основном проявляли поведение Нерешительный по поводу вакцины (35.7%), χ2 (3, N = 2,771) = 41.466, p < 0.001. Данные по распределению представлены в Таблице 1.

Таблица 1

Распределение здоровых поведенческих характеристик по социодемографическим категориям и вере в заговоры (% по строкам).

На риске привышено, что участники исследования будут способны оценить свое поведение и веру в вакцину на фоне соблюдения или несоблюдения рекомендаций по профилактике COVID-19.

To investigate the age-specific distribution of the behavioral types, we grouped the respondents by their age. We considered age groups of under 20 years (n = 921), 20–29 (n = 1,214), 30–39 (n = 278), 40–49 (n = 221), 50–59 (n = 86), and 60 years and above (n = 51). The results showed that age proportions significantly differed by type, χ2 (15, N = 2,771) = 96.008, p < 0.001. A weighty percentage of respondents under the age of 30 showed “Denying” and “Vaccine-hesitant” behavior (60.3 and 65.9% of individuals aged less than 30 years, respectively). They all reported low trust in a COVID-19 vaccine, and the younger they were, the lower compliance was with prevention-related behavioral practices. The age groups of 30–39 and 40–49 showed congruent results in prevention – the vast majority of these middle-aged individuals were highly compliant with preventive recommendations. However, they either reported trust in vaccines (rational type in 32.7 and 36.6% of middle-aged participants, respectively) or had low confidence in vaccination efficacy (vaccine-hesitant behavior in 31 and 28.5% of cases, respectively). At the same time, a significant part of the respondents of older ages (50–59 and 60 years and above) were found to have the “Rational” behavioral type. Most of them (60.5 and 43.1%, respectively) reported compliance with preventive practices and trust in vaccination. summarizes the age-related data.

Since education is widely considered as a factor that influences perceptions of ongoing events and corresponding behavior, including social and health behavior (11–14), we analyzed the education-based distribution of the surveyed individuals among the behavioral types. The differences were significant by type, χ2 (12, N = 2,771) = 45.917, p < 0.001, and showed that most of the respondents with incomplete secondary education (40%) comprised the “Denying” behavioral type. At the same time, individuals with secondary and vocational secondary education had “Denying” (30.6 and 33.3%) and “Vaccine-hesitant” (29.4 and 33.9%) health behaviors. The hesitant type was also registered in most of the respondents with incomplete higher education (33.9%), while “Rational” health behavior was found to prevail among individuals with higher education (33%). Detailed distribution data are available in .

Most respondents who believed in COVID-19 conspiracy theories showed “Denying” behavior (41.5%), whereas individuals with no reported conspiracy beliefs were inclined to “Vaccine-hesitant” (32%) and “Rational” (28.7%) behavioral types, χ2 (3, N = 2,771) = 47.635, p < 0.001 (see ).

Regions and health behavior

Regional data on health behavior prevalence during the second wave of the pandemic in Russia showed that significant differences existed across Federal Districts, χ2 (15, N = 2,771) = 69.26, p < 0.001 (). The vast majority of respondents who resided in the Central Federal District showed “Vaccine-hesitant” (36.6%) and “Rational” (30%) health behavior. Most participants from the Volga Federal District belonged to the “Denying” (34.2%) and “Vaccine-hesitant” (30.4%) behavioral types, while residents of the Siberian Federal District showed “Rational” health behavior more often (29.3%). Two of the largest respondents’ groups from the Northwestern Federal District were found to behave according to the “Rational” (29%) and “Vaccine-hesitant” (28.7%) types. Finally, the surveyed individuals from the Southern Federal District were more differentiated and showed “Vaccine-hesitant” (29.6%), “Rational” (27.7%), and “Denying” behaviors (27.7%) during the reported period of the pandemic.

Table 2

Distributions of health behaviors by region (% by line), χ2 (15, N = 2,771) = 69.26, p < 0.001.

Central Federal District333 (30%)406 (36.6%)260 (23.4%)110 (10%)

Northwestern Federal District84 (29%)83 (28.7%)75 (26%)47 (16.3%)

Volga Federal District161 (21.3%)230 (30.4%)259 (34.2%)107 (14.1%)

Southern Federal District81 (27.7%)87 (29.6%)81 (27.7%)44 (15%)

Siberian Federal District53 (29.3%)42 (23.2%)47 (26%)39 (21.5%)

Undisclosed41 (28.9%)44 (31%)40 (28.1%)17 (12%)

Discussion

Conspiracy theories about coronavirus and the pandemic are widespread around the world. For example, a survey conducted in the United States (n = 2,023) showed that more than 31% agreed that coronavirus was intentionally created and spread (16). The data obtained in our study showed that 49.1% of the respondents considered a laboratory origin of the coronavirus possible or found it difficult to answer, while 9.5% were convinced that laboratory invention of the coronavirus was true. As beliefs in specific conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus are considered among factors negatively affecting the public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines (17), a high rate of vaccine skepticism registered in Russia may be at least partially explained by the misinformation effect of conspiracy speculations.

The highest rate of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs (41.5%) was registered among the respondents with “Denying” health behavior, which corresponds, to a certain extent, to the opinions and behaviors interrelation model (23, 24).

Along with that, educational background was found to affect the proportions of respondents with “Rational” and “Denying” behavioral types by doubling the rate of the former from 17.5% among respondents with incomplete secondary education to 33% among individuals with university degrees and by decreasing the rate of the latter from 40 to 22%. “Denying” individuals were also younger (less than 30 years), while “Rational” were older (50 years and above), as older age was and still is a pandemic-related risk factor for heath. The middle-aged population of Russia (30–39 and 40–49 years of age) was highly compliant with prevention-related health practices; however, there were also high rates of vaccine-hesitant behavior among them. As the middle-aged population is most economically active, they should be considered for special targeting when planning a prevention campaign and vaccination promotion.

Despite the significant differences in health behaviors that we found across the Federal Districts of Russia, this study was not aimed to comprehensively address regional and cross-regional tendencies. Given the great variability of environmental factors, social capital, cultural health beliefs, and pandemic-related public health policies among the regional units within the Federal Districts, further research is needed to understand the dimensions of health behavior at a regional level.

As the national healthcare agenda is focused on pandemic-related somatic burden (25), existing comorbidities (26), and mental health risks (27), the evidence reported in our study will invigorate knowledge consolidation for a prompt response to potential infection outbreaks and future public health challenges.

Conclusion

Our findings contribute to the existing knowledge of health behavior and its determinants. Due to vaccine distrust among the Russian population and the country’s slower vaccination campaign compared to most other European countries during the pandemic, the results we have reported may improve disease prevention and advance communication campaigns to cause positive health behaviors.

Data availability statement

The studies involving humans were approved by the Ethics Council of Tomsk State University. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Grant no. 075-15-2022-1152 (Resolution no. 619 of April 8, 2022).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Tomsk State University Development Program (Priority-2030) and thank Tina Kubrak and Vladislav Latynov for their contribution to the survey questions development. The authors also thank Vyacheslav Goiko for the technical help in the dataset construction.

References

Articles from Frontiers in Public Health are provided here courtesy of Frontiers Media SA

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