The Effects of Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention Based on the Protection Motivation Theory in Promoting COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors in the Older Adults

Background/Purpose: Due to the pandemic of COVID-19 and the need to pay attention to the older adults as one of the most vulnerable groups, this study aimed to determine the effects of educational programs based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) as non-pharmaceutical intervention in promoting protective behaviors against COVID-19 among the older adults in Hamadan.Methods: The present study was a randomized controlled trial performed in 2021 on 80 older adults visiting retirement centers in Hamadan. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental (n=40) and control groups (n=40). The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire including demographic variables and constructs of PMT which were completed before and two months after the intervention. The intervention consisted of four sessions implemented for the experimental group. The collected data was analyzed in SPSS-16 using Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon tests. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of all demographic variables and theoretical constructs before the educational intervention. After the educational intervention, there was a significant difference in the constructs of perceived severity (P =0.012), perceived response efficiency (P=0.009), perceived self-efficacy (P=0.021), and perceived response cost (P <0.001) after the intervention. No significant changes were reported in the control group (P >0.05). Also, results showed that there was no significant difference in the mean of COVID-19 preventive behaviors between the two groups after the educational intervention (P >0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that the use of educational intervention as non-pharmaceutical intervention based on the PMT was an effective approach to perform preventive behaviors against infectious diseases such as COVID-19.