Behavior change due to COVID-19 among dental academics-The theory of planned behavior: Stresses, worries, training, and pandemic severity
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Volume
15
Publisher
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0239961
Journal
PLOS ONE
Issue
ISSN
1932-6203
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective:
COVID-19 pandemic led to major life changes. We assessed the psychological impact of
COVID-19 on dental academics globally and on changes in their behaviors.
Methods:
We invited dental academics to complete a cross-sectional, online survey from March to
May 2020. The survey was based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The survey collected data on participants’ stress levels (using the Impact of Event Scale), attitude (fears,
and worries because of COVID-19 extracted by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), perceived control (resulting from training on public health emergencies), norms (country-level
COVID-19 fatality rate), and personal and professional backgrounds. We used multilevel
regression models to assess the association between the study outcome variables (frequent
handwashing and avoidance of crowded places) and explanatory variables (stress, attitude,
perceived control and norms).
Results:
1862 academics from 28 countries participated in the survey (response rate = 11.3%). Of
those, 53.4% were female, 32.9% were <46 years old and 9.9% had severe stress. PCA
extracted three main factors: fear of infection, worries because of professional responsibilities, and worries because of restricted mobility. These factors had significant dosedependent association with stress and were significantly associated with more frequent
handwashing by dental academics (B = 0.56, 0.33, and 0.34) and avoiding crowded places
(B = 0.55, 0.30, and 0.28). Low country fatality rates were significantly associated with more
handwashing (B = -2.82) and avoiding crowded places (B = -6.61). Training on public health
emergencies was not significantly associated with behavior change (B = -0.01 and -0.11).
Conclusions:
COVID-19 had a considerable psychological impact on dental academics. There was a
direct, dose-dependent association between change in behaviors and worries but no association between these changes and training on public health emergencies. More change in
behaviors was associated with lower country COVID-19 fatality rates. Fears and stresses
were associated with greater adoption of preventive measures against the pandemic.