Health Beliefs and Dengue Preventive Behaviour Among College Students in the Midst Of COVID-19 Pandemic in Colombo, Sri Lanka – A Thematic Analysis

Background: According to conventional wisdom human behaviour is the cornerstone in managing communicable diseases. Little is known regarding health beliefs and behaviour about dengue among college students, especially during a COVID-19 pandemic.  Objective: The study focused on identifying the health beliefs and dengue preventive behaviour among college students. Also, to identify the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on preventive behaviour and health beliefs regarding dengue. Methods: 10 college students recruited to the study, by purposive sampling method. The participants underwent semi structured interviews, and the collected data was analysed based on thematic analysis. Results: The author identified three broad topics regarding health beliefs and dengue preventive behavior among the college students. They are, (1) Beliefs about the disease (2) Beliefs about the preventive behavior (dengue) (3) COVID-19 pandemic effect. The figure 1 describes the subtopics and their interaction model. (1) Beliefs about the disease have two subthemes; perceived susceptibility and perceived sever ity. (2) Beliefs about the preventive behavior comprised of three subthemes, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action. (3) COVID-19 pandemic effect, consists of effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy and cues to action in dengue prevention. Conclusions: In conclusion author suggests novel structure of health belief model which is applicable during the presence of a co-epidemic or another pandemic like COVID-19. Existing pandemic plays a significant role in connecting beliefs about both disease and behaviour in preventing dengue, which can be explained by “Pandemic effect”, that was discovered during this research.