The use of the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a Conceptual Framework to Understand and Promote Health Recommendations During the First Wave of Covid-19 in Mexico City

Abstract

In this study, we apply the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand the factors that explained adherence to health recommendations during the first wave of Covid-19 in Mexico City. To do this, we designed and implemented an online survey on prevention measures. In addition, we generate an empirical correlate of the Theory of Planned Behavior to hypothesize about correlations between variables in the survey. In addition, we included four simple experiments in the survey. We found that norms, attitudes and perception of control are correlated with the planning and adoption of preventive actions. In the experiments we observe (1) that corruption reduces the credibility of the government with respect to the health crisis, (2) doctors are more persuasive about prevention, and (3) masks generate feelings of security. We conclude that the Theory of Planned Behavior is useful to make sense of data from surveys like ours. We encourage governments in developing countries to use methods like ours to collect and interpret data, even if provisional, to respond to future health crises.

Keywords

• public policy
• health psychology
• health crisis
• survey experiments
• protective behaviour
• pandemics