THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE FORMATION OF THE ATTITUDE OF THE POPULATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION TO THE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Abstract

The pandemic of new coronavirus infection continues affecting many areas of public life. Against the background of arising variations, occur changes in people's psychological condition and in belief systems and attitudes to many fields of human knowledge, including medicine. The purpose of the study is to evaluate potential effect of COVID-19 pandemic on developing civil liability of the population of the Russian Federation regarding anti-epidemic activities to fight infectious diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The special anonymous on-line questionnaire was developed and placed on popular social platforms in open access. The questionnaire included two parts and contained 27 closed alternative questions with only one alternative to answer. The respondents included persons older than 18 years agreed to participate in survey. The data gathering provided for three subsequent stages. The final sampling consisted of 1350 respondents, out of them 1230 were citizen of the Russian Federation and 120 representatives of the near abroad. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: More than 65% of respondents confirmed positive changes of one's attitude to sanitary hygienic activities to better sense. Among them, 63.3% began to wash hands more regularly and 62.2% began to apply hand antiseptic more often. The comparing of study results by individual characteristics revealed a significant effect of primary hygienic status of respondents on magnitude of fixed changes. It is established that during 5 months the population readiness to be vaccinated by one of the registered national vaccines was increasing and level of uncertainty was decreasing. Among respondents 73.5% marked increasing of individual responsibility of citizens for hygienic practices. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated significant improvement of population attitude to sanitary hygienic practices after onset of pandemic. The greatest changes are observed in individuals with initially sufficient levels of hygienic commitment. On the basis of study results, the conclusion can be made about significant increasing of civil liability of the population of the Russian Federation for hygienic practices, especially against the background of COVID-19 pandemic.