Attitude and Performance of the Adult Population Regarding Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the City of Gerash, Fars, Iran

People’s attitude and performance regarding social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic plays a crucial role in determining the society’s readiness to adopt new hygiene practices.

This study aims to evaluate the attitude and performance of the adult population regarding social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Gerash, Iran.

This cross-sectional study 623 adults in Gerash who were recruited through convenience sampling. The data collection instrument was a self-designed social distancing attitude and performance questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS v. 16.

The results showed that 66% of the participants were female, and 51% were aged between 18 and 29 years. The participants’ mean (SD) scores for attitude and performance were 19.41 (2.36) and 14.76 (1.75), respectively. Approximately 16% of the participants had a negative attitude and 15% had poor performance with regard to social distancing. The mean (SD) score of attitude and performance was significantly higher in females, married and older participants (p<0.05). In addition, logistic regression showed that the performance of the subjects with a negative attitude was 0.26 times that the performance with a positive attitude (P= 0.001, OR= 0.265).

According to the study findings, it is recommended that the healthcare authorities in the city of Gerash take effective measures to educate the age group under 30 years, the male population, and single individuals to change their attitude and improve their performance to better control the spread of COVID-19