International Journal of Public Health (Aug 2022)

Barriers to Practicing COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors Among Migrant Workers in Qatar: A Qualitative Study During the First Wave of the Pandemic

  • Ghadir Fakhri Al-Jayyousi,
  • Mohamed Nour,
  • Jinan Suliman,
  • Muna Abed Alah,
  • Khaled Ali,
  • Sami Abdeen,
  • Mohammed Al-Thani,
  • Shariq Jaffrey,
  • Hamad Eid Al-Romaihi,
  • Elmoubasher Farag

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604881
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 67

Abstract

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Objectives: Manual and Craft Workers (MACWs), who constitute more than 80% of the population, were identified to be a vulnerable group to COVID-19 in Qatar. The goal of this study is to identify the limitations face MACWs in Qatar towards practicing the COVID-19 preventive measures and thereby designing behavioral change strategies.Methods: This is a qualitative research study in which individual interviews and focus group discussions were utilized for a deep understanding of the phenomenon from key informants. Four onlive individual interviews and four focus groups (n = 55) were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Inductive qualitative analysis was followed to discover the themes of the interviews. Data were analyzed using constant comparative techniques.Results: Major themes elicited from the analysis revealed that the barriers to following COVID-19 preventive behaviors among migrant workers in Qatar included barriers related to knowledge and risk perception; lifestyle and habits; nature of work and living conditions, and barriers related to health communication, diversified cultures, and languages.Conclusion: The findings would support constructing culturally sensitive health education messages and planning for effective health communication campaigns.

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