Components Affecting the Promotion of COVID-19 Disease Prevention Behaviors among Iranian Students: A Qualitative Study by Using the PRECEDE Model.

Background: COVID-19 is a social health problem. Several risk factors threaten students, and schools can provide a suitable environment for managing and performing health promotion programs. Given the extensive spread of the disease and the existence of multilevel components affecting the adoption of preventive behaviors, understanding the views and opinions of the audience about the barriers and facilitators affecting the behavior using qualitative studies can be one of the ways to have a successful intervention.

Materials And Methods: This was a qualitative study performed by a directed content analysis method while using the PRECEDE model (predisposing, reinforcing, enabling constructs in educational diagnosis and evaluation). In total, 38 individuals (teachers, parents, and students) were entered into the study using the purposive sampling method. Data were collected by semistructured interviews, and the implemented data were systematically classified into five stages (condensed meaning units, code, subcategory, category, and theme) and were arranged and analyzed.

Results: The findings are classified into three themes of predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors. In addition, perceived sensitivity, perceived intensity, mental beliefs, behavior outcome evaluation, and perceived power were considered as subcategories of predisposing factors, whereas normative beliefs and motivation for adherence to protocols were subcategories of reinforcing factors, and control beliefs were subcategories of enabling factors.

Conclusion: Our findings could be used as a guide to design educational interventions aiming at promoting COVID-19 prevention behaviors in schools.