Protective behavior against Covid-19 among Vietnamese people in the social distancing campaign: A cross-sectional study

ted in these policies is less than 50%. 
5.3. The impact of attitudes toward government-issued policies on preventive 
behavior 
The results of the t-test analysis do not show any difference in preventive 
behaviors between people with high and low consent to government-issued policies (see 
Table 3). However, from the regression results, it is shown that people's attitude towards 
these policies plays an important role in having a good adoption of COVID-19 
precautionary measures. This means that their good adoption is directly proportional to 
DALAT UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE [SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES] 
33 
their supportive attitude towards the government's anti-epidemic policies. Therefore, to 
help Vietnamese people have better preventive behaviors, the government should take 
anti-epidemic policies and their reasonableness into consideration. 
The results in Table 4 also indicate the importance of people's attitudes towards 
social distancing policies. In essence, social distancing policies have been playing an 
important role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in all nations. For example, the growth 
rate of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 in China and Iran has significantly 
decreased after the implementation of social distancing (Ghanbari et al., 2020; Shen, 
2020). In Vietnam, there were 268 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and zero fatalities as 
of April 16th (Báo Dân Trí, 2020; Báo Tuổi Trẻ, 2020a). Vietnam has been a low-risk area 
compared to other countries in the same geographic region (e.g., 83,745 cases in China, 
10,591 cases in South Korea, 8,100 cases in Japan, 5,223 cases in the Philippines, etc.) 
(World Health Organization, 2020b). It can be seen that these policies and their 
reasonableness have been creating a base for building an enormous number of young 
Vietnamese students’ trust in winning the battle against COVID-19, which is considered 
a strong foundation to help students have good preventive behaviors. 
6. CONCLUSION 
In summary, this cross-sectional study explores the general situation of 
Vietnamese students’ preventive behaviors during the social distancing campaign in the 
middle of April and indicates several factors associated with their behaviors. It is believed 
that the consensus between the government and the people can repel any danger, no matter 
how demanding it is. 
 However, this cross-sectional online survey was conducted based on a 
convenience sample that was over-representative of female students. Future research 
should use a more representative and systematic sampling method to improve the 
generality of the results. For instance, we should pay more attention to the groups that are 
vulnerable to the disease, such as unskilled workers and the elderly. Furthermore, our data 
collection instrument is a self-reported questionnaire. It is possible that participants 
respond in a positive way to satisfy what they perceive to be expected of them. As a result, 
studies on preventive behavior assessment should be carried out using other methods, 
such as telephone interviews, follow-up surveys, etc. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We gratefully acknowledge the respondents participating in this survey and 
sincerely thank Tu Phung Ngoc for participating as a content reviewer and translator. 
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