YEREVAN, Armenia — The American University of Armenia (AUA) Turpanjian College of Health Sciences (TCHS) is pleased to announce a new publication by Dr. Tsovinar Harutyunyan (MPH ’99), Varduhi Hayrumyan (MPH ’16), M.S.; Zhanna Sargsyan (MPH ’18), M.S.; and Dr. Anya Agopian, MPH. The article titled “Patterns of compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures in Armenia: results from a cross-sectional survey” is published in Scientific Reports, a peer-reviewed open-access multidisciplinary journal by Nature Portfolio, with an impact factor of 4.9, the second most-cited journal in the world covering original research from across all areas of the natural sciences, psychology, medicine, and engineering.
The article describes a cross-sectional telephone survey of 3,483 adults, which was conducted as part of a larger study of COVID-19 seroprevalence in Armenia, to explore the patterns and socio-demographic correlates of mask-wearing, hand washing, maintaining social distance, avoiding gatherings, and vaccination against COVID-19. The analysis revealed two distinct clusters in the Armenian population: those with higher and lower engagement in protective behaviors, with the “high protection” cluster constituting the majority of the sample (57.7%). The most common behavioral combination was simultaneous mask wearing, hand washing, maintaining social distance, and avoiding gatherings (19.7%). The multivariable analysis of socio-demographic factors associated with cluster membership revealed that females, older, and less affluent individuals were more likely to comply with the recommended behaviors.
This study represented the first attempt to analyze compliance with multiple preventive behaviors in the context of an infectious disease outbreak in Armenia. The findings seem to support the assumption that certain groups of individuals might want to enhance their protection through adhering to all or most of the recommended measures simultaneously. Further investigations should focus on individuals who adhere to multiple recommendations or their specific combinations to gain insights into factors that motivate and enable their protective behaviors.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the potential for new infectious disease outbreaks globally and in Armenia remains high. The study stresses the importance of exploring general patterns of compliance instead of focusing on individual preventive behaviors, and developing interventions that could facilitate and enable behaviors in concert.
The AUA Turpanjian College of Health Sciences works actively to improve population health and health services in Armenia and the region through interdisciplinary education and development of health professionals to be leaders in public health, nursing, health services research and evaluation, and health care delivery and management.