The Community Participation in Preventing and Controlling the Spread of Coronavirus 2019

Abstract

This participatory action research aimed to study community participation in preventing and controlling the spread of coronavirus 19. The participants were composed of 50 community leaders and 100 household members. Research instruments included the demographic questionnaire, coronavirus 19 knowledge test with reliability of 0.85, the perceived risk and severity of coronavirus 19 questionnaire with reliability of 0.89, the preventing and controlling the spread of coronavirus 19 questionnaire with reliability of 0.92, the community data record form, the in-depth interview guide for community leader, the focus group guide, and the observation form. Two cycles of this research (each cycle comprised 4 steps including planning, action, observation, and reflection) were conducted from August 2021 to January 2022. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, paired t-tests, and content analyses.

Results showed that 1) situation before the development: the participants lacked the knowledge and the perceived risk and severity, they also had inappropriate preventing and controlling the spread, and the community lacked the measures prevention; 2) the developing activities were composed of providing health education, promoting the perceived risk and severity, enhancing preventing behaviors preventing and controlling the spread, and setting the community measures prevention; and 3) after the development, both community leaders and household members had statistically significant higher mean scores of knowledge, perceived risk and severity, and preventing behaviors preventing and controlling the spread than those of before the development (p<0.001).