COVID-19 risk perception and public compliance with preventive measures: Evidence from a multi-wave household survey in the MENA region

Generally, the severe spread of the virus in MENA countries has been attributed to the influ- ence of a suite of institutional and contextual factors, including the healthcare systems’ lack of preparedness, the inadequacy of health resources and management strategies, governments’ denial of the seriousness of infection among the population in the early stages of the pandemic, and widespread confli. [...] Despite the statistical insignificance of the coefficients related to social distancing and handwashing, in terms of household factors, the negative sign of the coefficient of household size in the three models suggested that a larger household size generally hampered the ability of individuals to comply with mitigation measures. [...] In particular, the marginal effects of compliance with the mitigation measures in relation to the use of face masks were highest in absolute terms, indicating that the higher a household income was, the greater the probability of an individual following government recommendations regarding the wearing of face masks in public places during the pandemic. [...] In particular, the statistically highly significant coefficient of this variable in the second model (using a face mask), in contrast to the handwashing and social distancing models, can be attributed to the nature of this behaviour in the sense that several MENA coun- tries experienced shortages of medical masks during the early stages of the pandemic [45]. [...] In terms of the influence of educational attainment on the association between concern about infection and adherence to COVID-19 mitigation measures, it was found that, with a few exceptions, the likelihood of an individual’s compliance with the three preventive mea- sures increased with the level of the individual’s educational attainment.