Theoretical Approach to Adherence to Safety Behaviours During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Adherence to safety behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic has become substantial in mitigating the viral spread. However, recently several countries entering into the deadly COVID-19 waves pointed out the issue of non-adherence to recommended COVID-19 guidelines and demand addressing the process of adherence from a different perspective. Approaching the pandemic only from an illness perspective and focusing mainly on symptom reduction is making the process of adherence even more challenging as a result of which COVID-19 cases are spiking daily and increasing the mortality rate globally. Therefore, this paper aims to address adherence behaviour during the Covid crisis, from the perspective of an individual’s perception of self, infection and treatment plan, which may provide a theoretical explanation for the process of adherence, using the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation (CSM). This health model highlights the constructs such as prototypes and representations, specific for self, illness and its treatment, in generating an action plan which may be continued or discontinued depending upon its efficacy and thereby explains the reason for varied responses of people towards the pandemic. CSM can be used to explain the prominence of concrete behavioural guidelines (action plan) during an infectious outbreak, the significance of providing concrete illness and treatment representation of the infection, the role of appraisal of treatment efficacy in long-term adherence and the essentiality of interventions focusing on self-prototypes. Therefore, understanding adherence during COVID-19 from all these aspects and appropriately adopting a holistic approach integrating the teamwork of medical practitioners, government policymakers, psychologists, social workers and other related experts may prove to be vital in improving adherence behaviour during this pandemic.