COVID-19: Developing evidence-based messages to encourage preventive health behaviours

诸如一个人的健康信念、社会支持、文化等变量会影响进行健康行为的可能性。因此，需要在任何旨在鼓励预防行为(如洗手和社交距离)的公共卫生信息中处理这些变量。在大流行时期，如果不遵循某些行为，生命就会受到威胁，仔细设计公共卫生信息就变得更加重要。为了帮助公共卫生官员设计有效的信息，我们需要确定与每种预防行为最密切相关的具体变量，以便对这些变量进行优先排序。我们的项目将通过严格审查现有研究文献来提供这些信息，这些变量解释了从事预防行为(如洗手和社交距离)的可能性。这篇综述中包含的研究将在类似于新冠肺炎的疾病的背景下进行，例如严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)、大流行和季节性流感。我们亦会包括在检讨过程中出现的有关新冠肺炎的任何相关证据。检讨结果将会总结给公共卫生机构，并将有助优化任何旨在鼓励新冠肺炎采取预防行为或日后出现类似情况的讯息的效力。

Variables such as a person's health beliefs, social support, culture, etc. influence the likelihood of undertaking a health behaviour. Therefore, these variables need to be addressed in any public health messages designed to encourage preventive behaviours (such as handwashing and social distancing). In times of a pandemic, when lives are at risk if certain behaviours are not followed, the careful design of public health messages becomes even more important. To help public health officials to design effective messages, we need to identify the specific variables that are most strongly related to each preventive behaviour so that these can be prioritised.Our project will provide this information by rigorously reviewing the existing research literature about the variables that explain the likelihood of engaging in preventive behaviours (such as handwashing and social distancing). The research included in this review will have been conducted in the context of illnesses similar to COVID-19, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and pandemic and seasonal influenza. We will also include any relevant evidence about COVID-19 that emerges over the course of our review.The findings of the review will be summarised for public health bodies and will help to optimise the effectiveness of any messages designed to encourage preventive behaviours for COVID-19 or any future similar situations.