Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community.
Rural populations are more vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19 compared to their urban counterparts as they are more likely to be older, uninsured, to have more underlying medical conditions, and live further from medical care facilities. We engaged the Southeastern MN (SEMN) community (N = 7,781,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286953 |
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| author | Laura A Maciejko Jean M Fox Michelle T Steffens Christi A Patten Hana R Newman Paul A Decker Phil Wheeler Young J Juhn Chung-Il Wi Mary Gorfine LaPrincess Brewer Pamela S Sinicrope |
| author_facet | Laura A Maciejko Jean M Fox Michelle T Steffens Christi A Patten Hana R Newman Paul A Decker Phil Wheeler Young J Juhn Chung-Il Wi Mary Gorfine LaPrincess Brewer Pamela S Sinicrope |
| author_sort | Laura A Maciejko |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Rural populations are more vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19 compared to their urban counterparts as they are more likely to be older, uninsured, to have more underlying medical conditions, and live further from medical care facilities. We engaged the Southeastern MN (SEMN) community (N = 7,781, 51% rural) to conduct a survey of motivators and barriers to masking to prevent COVID-19. We also assessed preferences for types of and modalities to receive education/intervention, exploring both individual and environmental factors primarily consistent with Social Cognitive Theory. Our results indicated rural compared to urban residents performed fewer COVID-19 prevention behaviors (e.g. 62% rural vs. 77% urban residents reported wearing a mask all of the time in public, p<0.001), had more negative outcome expectations for wearing a mask (e.g. 50% rural vs. 66% urban residents thought wearing a mask would help businesses stay open, p<0.001), more concerns about wearing a mask (e.g. 23% rural vs. 14% urban were very concerned about being 'too hot', p<0.001) and lower levels of self-efficacy for masking (e.g. 13.9±3.4 vs. 14.9±2.8, p<0.001). It appears that masking has not become a social norm in rural SEMN, with almost 50% (vs. 24% in urban residents) disagreeing with the expectation 'others in my community will wear a mask to stop the spread of Coronavirus'. Except for people (both rural and urban) who reported not being at all willing to wear a mask (7%), all others expressed interest in future education/interventions to help reduce masking barriers that utilized email and social media for delivery. Creative public health messaging consistent with SCT tailored to rural culture and norms is needed, using emails and social media with pictures and videos from role models they trust, and emphasizing education about when masks are necessary. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3a46381fcb1f4da49f60cfbcb2cb5636 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-3a46381fcb1f4da49f60cfbcb2cb56362025-08-20T03:42:09ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-01186e028695310.1371/journal.pone.0286953Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community.Laura A MaciejkoJean M FoxMichelle T SteffensChristi A PattenHana R NewmanPaul A DeckerPhil WheelerYoung J JuhnChung-Il WiMary GorfineLaPrincess BrewerPamela S SinicropeRural populations are more vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19 compared to their urban counterparts as they are more likely to be older, uninsured, to have more underlying medical conditions, and live further from medical care facilities. We engaged the Southeastern MN (SEMN) community (N = 7,781, 51% rural) to conduct a survey of motivators and barriers to masking to prevent COVID-19. We also assessed preferences for types of and modalities to receive education/intervention, exploring both individual and environmental factors primarily consistent with Social Cognitive Theory. Our results indicated rural compared to urban residents performed fewer COVID-19 prevention behaviors (e.g. 62% rural vs. 77% urban residents reported wearing a mask all of the time in public, p<0.001), had more negative outcome expectations for wearing a mask (e.g. 50% rural vs. 66% urban residents thought wearing a mask would help businesses stay open, p<0.001), more concerns about wearing a mask (e.g. 23% rural vs. 14% urban were very concerned about being 'too hot', p<0.001) and lower levels of self-efficacy for masking (e.g. 13.9±3.4 vs. 14.9±2.8, p<0.001). It appears that masking has not become a social norm in rural SEMN, with almost 50% (vs. 24% in urban residents) disagreeing with the expectation 'others in my community will wear a mask to stop the spread of Coronavirus'. Except for people (both rural and urban) who reported not being at all willing to wear a mask (7%), all others expressed interest in future education/interventions to help reduce masking barriers that utilized email and social media for delivery. Creative public health messaging consistent with SCT tailored to rural culture and norms is needed, using emails and social media with pictures and videos from role models they trust, and emphasizing education about when masks are necessary.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286953 |
| spellingShingle | Laura A Maciejko Jean M Fox Michelle T Steffens Christi A Patten Hana R Newman Paul A Decker Phil Wheeler Young J Juhn Chung-Il Wi Mary Gorfine LaPrincess Brewer Pamela S Sinicrope Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community. PLoS ONE |
| title | Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community. |
| title_full | Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community. |
| title_fullStr | Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community. |
| title_short | Rural and urban residents' attitudes and preferences toward COVID-19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community. |
| title_sort | rural and urban residents attitudes and preferences toward covid 19 prevention behaviors in a midwestern community |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286953 |
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