Page 140 - IJPS-10-4

International Journal of
Population Studies Household on teens’ COVID-19 prevention

Table 4. (Continued)
Background characteristics Behavioral changes (n=5581) Preventive measures (n=5581)
AOR p‑value 95% CI AOR p‑value 95% CI
Household members who received grants
None 1 1
1 1.04 0.534 (0.91 – 1.19) 1.02 0.809 (0.89 – 1.16)
2+ 0.96 0.661 (0.80 – 1.15) 1.17 0.086 (0.98 – 1.40)
Note: ***p<0.001; **p<0.01; *p<0.05.
Abbreviations: AOR: Adjusted odds ratio; CI: Confidence interval.
associated with behavioral changes among young people There was a significant association between household
in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. In access to electricity and behavior change during COVID-19
addition, this study revealed that the number of household among young people in South Africa. A similar result was
members who received COVID-19 grants did not affect reported in a previous study (Gittings et al., 2021). This
adolescents’ behavioral changes. One key reason for the research implies that, to ensure that households have access
resistance to behavioral change among some young people to electricity during pandemics and are well informed about
could be a lack of proper information about the COVID-19 the harmful effects of the illness, the government should
pandemic, as adolescents without access to radio or TV did give priority to these vulnerable homes. Furthermore,
not receive the necessary information to make informed adolescents from households with seven members or
changes in their behavior. above had increased odds of changing behaviors during
Our study further revealed that gender, ethnicity, pandemics. This finding signifies the importance of
province of residence, access to water, household income, acknowledging the importance of large families in
and the number of household members who received determining health-seeking behaviors during pandemics
any form of COVID-19 grant were important factors among young people. Meeting the health needs of large
in adopting any form of preventive measure during the families, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, has the
pandemic. Furthermore, education level and household potential to increase the necessary preventive measures to
size were not associated with any form of preventive be taken during pandemic crises. By continuing to pursue
measure adopted among adolescents. the positive health-seeking behaviors of large families
during a pandemic, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the
This study also found that the odds of behavioral government will create an opportunity to reduce the risks,
changes during the COVID-19 period among adolescents trends, and factors that will inform targeted public health
were lower among the Colored and White racial groups. interventions among the youth.
This suggests that an adolescent’s ethnic background
significantly influenced the extent to which they changed The research employed the HBM to elucidate the
their behaviors throughout the period. In addition, the reasons for the behavioral modifications and preventative
study revealed that being female had a positive association actions taken by a subset of South African youth during
with behavioral changes, implying that females had the COVID-19 pandemic. This model was adopted
increased odds of positive behavior change during the because people are more likely to take preventative health-
pandemic. This finding corroborates the results of other promoting measures when they think the advantages of
studies from Ghana, which reported that young women doing so exceed the challenges or drawbacks of doing
were more likely to change their behaviors during the so (Campos-Mercade et al., 2021; Jones & Wallis, 2022).
COVID-19 pandemic (Asiamah et al., 2021). Adoption of The paradigm presupposes that people acquire rational
new behavioral measures was lower among male youth, abilities to make decisions by means of communication or
probably because they were less aware of the various schooling.
behavioral guidelines provided by the Department of It is pertinent for young people to understand the
Health throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Literature importance of adopting preventive measures during
states that men perform poorly in analyses concerning infectious disease outbreaks to avoid contracting the
hygiene measures. This may also be the reason why male virus. Household factors play a pivotal role in this regard,
youth would be less aware of different behavioral guidelines as some youths mentioned that they could not adopt
provided by the Department of Health (Manirambona et any measure of preventive mechanisms in South Africa,
al., 2022). despite the benefits associated with it. This finding could be

Volume 10 Issue 4 (2024) 134 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2751