Background: Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China and spread quickly to other parts of the world. To prevent and eliminate widespread transmission of the disease, it is vital that everyone acts in compliance with precautions.

Objective: To assess the preventive health behavior against COVID-19 of nursing students in Thailand based on the health belief model (HBM).

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among nursing students by using a questionnaire survey. The data of 620 nursing students were collected between July 6 and July 17, 2020. The significant differences among individual characteristics were tested by using independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Scheffe’s post-hoc ANOVA difference test. To predict the factors influencing COVID-19 preventive behavior, univariate coefficient (βU) and multivariate coefficient (βm) were derived by using univariate and multivariate linear regression models.

Results: Preventive behaviors against COVID-19 were significantly affected by knowledge about COVID-19 (β=0.574, p<0.01), perceived severity of COVID-19 (β=0.494, p<0.01), perceived benefits of COVID-19 prevention (β=0.207, p<0.05), and cues to action (β=1.150, p<0.01) among sophomore (β=1.648, p<0.01), junior (β=2.764, p<0.01), and senior (β=2.794, p<0.01) nursing students.

Conclusion: Knowledge about COVID-19 and cues to action were found to be the most significant contributors to preventive behaviors against COVID-19. Therefore, knowledge of disease prevention behaviors for nursing student has to be practiced continuously to become habits that lead to long-term results.

Keywords: COVID-19; Preventive behavior; Nursing student

DOI: 10.35755/jmedassocthai.2022.10.13676

Received 6 January 2022 | Revised 1 August 2022 | Accepted 9 August 2022