Factors Determining Commitment to Health-Promoting Behavior During COVID-19

Abstract

Forming new behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic required individual commitment. Based on Pender’s health promotion model (HPM), factors affecting commitment to new behaviors include benefit perception, barriers, self-efficacy, related activities, as well as interpersonal and situational influences. This study aims to determine the determinant factors that affected commitment to health-promoting behavior and habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study randomly assigned online questionnaires to 186 people in Palembang. The instruments used in this study were developed by the author based on Pender’s HPM. Path analysis with the SEM-PLS approach was used to analyze determinant factors of community commitment. The results of the analysis showed that the following influenced commitment: benefit variables (β = 0.192; p = 0.011), previous activities (β = 0.134; p = 0.031), interpersonal influence (β = 0.214; p = 0.005) and situational influence (β = 0.326; p = 0.000), barriers (β =-0.068; p = 0.247), and self-efficacy (β = 0.079; p = 0.256). All the predictors contributed to a commitment value of 40.6%. It can be concluded that enhancing perceived benefits and focusing on previously completed activities, and external factors, interpersonal and situational influence, may strengthen commitment to developing healthy behavior. Moreover, good self-efficacy based on previous practice can lower perceived barriers, which hinder commitment. Therefore, nurses need to focus on identifying individual internal and external factors to bolster commitment while lowering barriers.