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‘Did you wash your hands?’ A quantitative analysis of behaviour change among youth in South Africa during Covid-19.

Nicole De Wet- Billings, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Background: Under Covid-19, the possible costs of personal protective equipment, overcrowding and competing education and economic interests makes it difficult for young people in developing countries, such as South Africa, to remain protected against the virus. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to use the Health Belief Model to (1) identify the main protective behaviours young people adopted during the early months of the pandemic and (2) to estimate the probability of positive behaviour change by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of youth. Data and Methods: The study uses data from the first wave of the South African National Income Dynamics - Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey 2020. The sample for this study includes 985 (n) youth aged 15-24 years old. The outcome of interest is behaviour change due to the coronavirus. Two questions, the first pertaining to behaviour change (yes/no) and the second, a list of protective behaviours adopted are used. Cross-tabulations and a binary logistic regression model showing odds ratios, will be fit to the data to estimate the probability that youth will adopt positive behaviour change. Preliminary Results: Not all youth adopted protective behaviours. The most prevalent behaviours adopted include washing hands (67.75%) and staying at home (54.02%).

Keywords: COVID-19, Children and youth, Demographic and social surveys, Health and morbidity

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 202. COVID-19 and Widening Inequalities