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Adherence to the Recommendations from the Portuguese General Directorate of Health (GDH) during the COVID-19 pandemic: fear or prosocial behaviour?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

C. Cabacos ,
A.T. Pereira ,
M.J. Pacheco ,
S. Soares ,
A. Manão ,
A. Araújo ,
A.P. Amaral ,
R. De Sousa  and
A. Macedo
C. Cabacos*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
A.T. Pereira
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
M.J. Pacheco
Affiliation:
University of Coimbra, Faculty Of Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
S. Soares
Affiliation:
University of Coimbra, Faculty Of Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
A. Manão
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
A. Araújo
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
A.P. Amaral
Affiliation:
Polytechnical Institute of Coimbra, Coimbra Health School, Coimbra, Portugal
R. De Sousa
Affiliation:
ACeS Baixo Mondego, Usf Coimbra Centro, Coimbra, Portugal
A. Macedo
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

During a public health crisis, preventive measures are essential. However, to make them effective, all citizens must be engaged.

Objectives

To analyse the differential role of individual and contextual variables in the adherence to public health recommendations.

Methods

1376 adults (70.5% female; mean age=35.55±14.27) completed a survey between September/2020 and May/2021 with: Adherence Scale to the Recommendations during COVID-19 (ASR-COVID19; evaluates three dimensions of adherence), Fear of Covid-19 Scale (FC19S) and Toronto and Coimbra Prosocial Behaviour Questionnaire (ProBeQ; assesses empathy and altruism).

Results

Adherence did not differ between individuals with or without personal or family history of COVID-19 infection. ASR-COVID19 and all dimensions were positively correlated to ProBeQ’s altruism and empathy (from r=.32 to r=.54); FCV19S correlated positively to total adherence score and house sanitation (from r=.18 to r=.26; all p<.01). Linear regressions revealed that altruism and empathy (first model), as well as fear of Covid-19 (second model), were significant predictors of adherence; however, while the first model explained ≅28% of its variance, the second (FCV19S as independent variable) only explained ≅3%. Regression models performed in a subsample of participants with personal or family history of COVID-19 revealed that only empathy, but not altruism, was a significant predictor of adherence; in this subsample, fear was no longer a significant predictor of adherence, except for lockdown and use of teleservices.

Conclusions

Based on our results, we suggest health care providers and public health campaigns should take into consideration social solidarity and altruism, as well as previous experiences, when appealing to public’s engagement in health behaviour.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

altruismCovid-19fearEmpathy
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S310
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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