Awareness of methods for COVID-19 prevention and its implementation in the behavior of healthcare workers and HIV-infected patients

Objective. To assess the ideas on how to prevent coronavirus infection and the scenarios of preventive behavior of healthcare workers and HIV-infected patients. Subjects and methods. The investigation was conducted in the period from May 21 to June 15, 2020 by a questionnaire survey. It enrolled 192 respondents. Group 1 consisted of 67 healthcare workers in Moscow; Group 2 included 79 HIV-infected patients; Group 3 comprised 46 respondents (a comparison group). Awareness and used prevention strategies were assessed using open-ended questions. Results. The most commonly mentioned ways of preventing coronavirus infection were personal protection means (PPMs) (76, 75, and 72% in Groups 1, 2, 3, respectively, as well as prevention methods related to hygiene and use of disinfectants. There were no signif icant differences between the groups. Differences were observed when restrictions on visiting crowded places were mentioned. The respondents in Group 1 reported this possibility statistically significantly more often than those in Group 2 (p = 0.006). The persons in Group 3 more often called social distancing (p = 0.002) and immunity increase (p = 0.024) than those in Group 2. In practice, PPMs were used more frequently than other known measures in all the groups (93, 86, and 72%. The respondents in Group 1 pointed to the use of PPMs with a statistically significantly higher frequency than those in Group 3 (p = 0.007). In all the groups, disinfectants were used by 52, 49, and 54%, respectively; 40, 34, and 57% practiced proper hygiene. In all the groups, the PPM strategy was of the greatest value in the know-use ratio. The smallest coincidence of behavioral preventive measures known to respondents was noted in the pattern of restricting visits to crowded places. Conclusion. No direct relationship was found between awareness and formal behavioral knowledge aimed at preventing coronavirus infection. In most cases (except for the use of PPMs and disinfectants), the number of content units, which characterized low-risk behavior, was smaller than the same indicator of the amount of awareness about ways to prevent COVID-19.

COVID-19, awareness, behavior, prevention