The Effect of Informing Through Social Networks on Compliance with Recommendations for the Prevention of Covid-19 Through Public Awareness and Behavior Change

Corona virus disease has faced the world with a big challenge and countries have reacted to it according to their capacity. In this crisis, social media as a social institution have played a vital role in providing knowledge about the corona virus, which due to the cultural differences of countries, the extent of the help of these media during the disease transmission crisis is unknown. This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of social media on compliance with the recommendations for the prevention of Covid-19 through public awareness and behavior change in Iranian society.

This research was conducted descriptively and with a correlation design with a covariance-oriented approach in the community of social network users by collecting evidence through a closed-answer questionnaire and random sampling in a systematic and scientific manner and analyzed by statistical methods.

According to the results of the descriptive part, the evaluation of the measured items is at a high level, and according to the inferential results, by using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, while confirming the validity of the study, the role of using social networks in public health security through public awareness and Behavioral change during the Corona epidemic has been significantly supported.

Based on the evidence and results of data analysis, social media strategies can be used for public education and increasing users' knowledge and awareness, creating behavioral changes for users and increasing users' compliance with the recommendations for preventing Covid-19 and finally improving public safety.