COVID-19 was declared a “pandemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO) in early March 2020. Globally, extraordinary measures are being adopted to combat the formidable spread of the ongoing outbreak. Under such conditions, people’s adherence to preventive measures is greatly affected by their awareness of the disease. As the global threat of COVID-19 continues to emerge, it is critical to improve the awareness and preparedness of the targeted community members, especially the less educated ones. Educational interventions are urgently needed to reach the targeted residents beyond borders and further measures are warranted. The outcome of this study highlighted a growing need for the adoption of innovative local strategies to improve awareness in general population related to COVID-19 and its preventative practices in order to meet its elimination goals.
An ongoing outbreak of infection by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), termed as COVID-19, aroused the attention of the entire world. The first infected case of coronavirus was reported on December 31, 2019, in Wuhan, China; within few weeks, infections spread across China and to other countries around the world .On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, which was the 6th declaration of its kind in WHO history. Surprisingly, during the first week of March 2020, devastating numbers of new cases were reported globally, and the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a “pandemic” in March 2020. The outbreak has now spread to more than 200 countries, areas, or territories beyond China. SARS-CoV-2 is a novel strain of the coronavirus family that has not been previously identified in humans .The disease spreads through person-to-person contact, and the posed potential public health threat is very high. Estimates indicated that COVID-19 could cost the world more than $10 trillion, although considerable uncertainty exists concerning the reach of the virus and the efficacy of the policy response. The scientists still have limited information about COVID-19, and as a result, the complete clinical picture of COVID-19 is not fully understood yet. Based on currently available information, COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease and its primary clinical symptoms include fever, dry cough, and difficulty in breathing, fatigue, myalgia and dyspnea. This coronavirus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets of 5–10 μm in diameter, discharge from the mouth or nose, when an infected person coughs or sneezes .Reported illnesses range from very mild (including asymptomatic) to severe including illness resulting to death. However, the information so far suggested the symptoms as mild in almost 80% of the patients with lower death rates. People with co-morbidities, including diabetes and hypertension, who are treated with the drugs such as thiazolidinediones, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs) have an increased expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2). Since, SARS-CoV-2 binds to their target cells through ACE-2, it was suggested that patients with cardiac disease, hypertension, and diabetes are at the higher risk of developing severe to fatal COVID-19. Moreover, elderly people (≥65 years), those and people with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, who are immune compromised (due to cancer treatment, bone marrow or organ transplant, AIDS, and prolonged use of corticosteroids or other medications), and those people with severe obesity and chronic liver or kidney disease are at higher risk of developing the COVID-19 severe illness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have reduced the frequency of going out, and need to engage in health behaviors at home. Home-based exercise has aroused people’s attention. This paper aims to examine the influencing mechanism of health consciousness on home-based exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire method was used to select 449 Chinese respondents on an online platform; the questionnaire includes a health consciousness scale, health life goal scale, perceived behavioral control scale, and the home-based exercise scale. A T-test was used to conduct differential analysis. The hierarchical regression analysis method was used to examine the relationship between health consciousness and home-based exercise, and the Hayes’ SPSS PROCESS macro was used to test mediating effect. The results show that there are significant differences in home-based exercise with respect to gender, age, and marital status. Health consciousness has a significant positive effect on home-based exercise. Perceived behavioral control acts as the mediator between health consciousness and home-based exercise. Health consciousness can influence home-based exercise through health life goals and perceived behavioral control in turn. This paper takes a home-based exercise survey, and expands the theoretical research of home-based exercise. The findings suggest that people should pay attention to promoting the transformation of health consciousness into home-based exercise. It provides enlightenment for people to adopt health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic of COVID-19, in the face of the virus, people deeply felt the importance of health to individuals, and their health consciousness would be greatly improved, so they would adopt health behaviors to protect their health. Since activities are confined within the home, these health behaviors often occur within the home, as does exercise.
Health Consciousness and Home-Based Exercise: Consciousness is described as “the state of understanding and realizing something”, which is closely related to individual thoughts, memories, feelings, etc. It can not only transmit information, but also produce meaningful information, and constantly change according to individual needs, thus enabling us to act autonomously Health consciousness is a part of individual consciousness. Becker et al. defined health consciousness as “the degree to which a person is inclined to take health actions” It has the characteristics of sensitivity to physical health, stress and health hazard factors .Health consciousness contains multiple aspects, which Gould divided into four dimensions: health self-consciousness, health involvement, health alertness, and health self-monitoring .Hong believes that health consciousness includes three potential dimensions: health self-consciousness, personal responsibility, and health motivation . Exercise plays an important role in the personal pursuit of health .A large number of studies have shown that exercise has a positive impact on people’s physical and mental health. Regular exercise can improve immunity, delay aging, reduce fat, and improve cardiopulmonary function .In addition, exercise has a positive effect on the reduction of depression in different groups, such as the elderly , students, and pregnant women .Home-based exercise, as the name implies, is a related exercise program at home. It can overcome the limitations of the environment and can provide a cheap, safe and controllable experience and is an important setting for increasing exercise. According to the theory of self-consciousness, self-consciousness can predict the consistency of attitude and behavior, which extends to health consciousness and health behaviors. There is consistency between health consciousness and health behaviors. Health-conscious people tend to have a better understanding of health themselves, pay attention to individual health problems, and then take healthy measures to ensure their personal health .There are many kinds of health behaviors, such as eating a healthy diet, working out and exercising. Among them, regular exercise is regarded as one of the most beneficial health behaviors .During the pandemic of COVID-19, in the face of the virus, people deeply felt the importance of health to individuals, and their health consciousness would be greatly improved, so they would adopt health behaviors to protect their health. Since activities are confined within the home, these health behaviors often occur within the home, as does exercise.
Benefits of Vaccination:
Here’s how a COVID-19 vaccination benefits you:
• Protection against COVID-19: The best means of staying healthy is to avoid infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. If, however, you do become infected, vaccination appears to limit the risk of developing severe or even fatal symptoms. This is because the currently available vaccine primes your immunological system for producing antibodies without causing you to get sick. If you do become infected, your body is prepared to fight the disease. Vaccination typically results in fewer or milder symptoms when you’re ill (or no symptoms at all).
• Protection for your family and friends: By getting the COVID-19 vaccine, you also lessen the chance of spreading the COVID-19 pathogen to family members, friends, or other people with whom you have contact.
• High rates of effectiveness. Vaccines prepared have shown to be 94-95 percent effective within two weeks of full inoculation. In other words, the vaccines will safeguard 19 out of every 20 persons inoculated from becoming seriously ill with COVID-19.
(The author a teacher by profession is presently working at Govt High School Brakpora Anantnag. Views are his own)
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