Contexts, beliefs and health behaviour: Are individuals who engage in risky sexual behaviour likely to wear face-masks against COVID-19?

Abstract

Beside age, underlying comorbidities and availability of sanitation facilities, individual health beliefs and behaviour are critical in combating the sustained prevalence of Covid-19. Behaviour has, however, been shown to be consistent but could be con-text-dependent based on the individual’s beliefs. To investigate whether or not indi-viduals’ protective behaviour against coron-avirus is associated with their behaviour in a previous health context. Facemask usage and engagement in risky sexual behaviour (RSB) were employed as corollaries of Covid-19 protective behaviour and a previous health context respectively. Data on them and other sociodemographic correlates of health behaviour were collected on 522 Nigerians via a web-based survey. The data were analyzed using frequency, Chi Square and Binary Logistics Regression. About 31% of the population wore face-masks in public, 48.1% believed Covid existed and was severe, and 31.6% had engaged in RSB. Individuals who engaged in RSB had lower odds of wearing face-masks in public in both the general population and across the rural-urban divide. The relationship was, however, only statistically significant (OR:0.642, p<0.05) in the adjusted regression model. Other significant determinants of facemask use were gender, place of residence, employment status and beliefs about Covid. The similarity of individual beliefs and behaviours in dif-ferent health contexts provides an opportu-nity to model behaviour change communication policies for preventing and combating the spread of coronavirus and other infectious diseases.