Study of the Sudanese perceptions of COVID-19: Applying the Health Belief Model.

BackgroundCOVID-19 a pandemic declared by WHO, is the first in recent history pose challenges on public health. Health Belief Model is a psychosocial model explains and predicts health-related behaviours. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of the Sudanese on COVID-19-related preventive measures. MethodsA Cross-sectional study using online-questionnaire was conducted between 1st-16th April 2020 among Sudanese adults (aged [≥]18 years). We used a snowball sampling technique, starting from known professional and social media groups, and individuals and then was distributed on various internet platforms. The survey instrument was based on HBM constructs. ResultsSome 877 individuals participated in the survey with a mean age 37.8 (SD{+/-}11.94) more males, mostly having a university education, employed and residing in Khartoum. More than half of the participants scored high in almost all Health Belief Model constructs, except for benefits of hand hygiene. The findings show that the HBM constructs are correlated to each others as well as to other socio-demographic factors. Self-efficacy correlated negatively with susceptibility (r -0.084), while positively with severity, benefits of and barriers to hand hygiene, benefits and barriers to social distancing (r 0.117, r 0.347, r 0.202, r 0.396, r 0.276), respectively. ConclusionThe findings show that the HBM constructs are correlated to each others as well as to other socio-demographic factors. Self-efficacy must be taken into account as a strong changing factor to susceptibility and severity perceptions. Correlations found in this study might help drive behaviour-changing efforts.