Factors Affecting Preventive Health Behaviors against COVID-19 in Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study was conducted to identify factors affecting preventive health behaviors and to provide basic data for developing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention and education programs. The participants were 218 students enrolled in two nursing colleges located near Gyeongsang and Jeolla province, Republic of Korea. Data were collected in December 2020 and analyses were conducted using t- and Scheffé tests, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression with the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). The factors affecting preventive health behaviors were fear of infection (β = 0.26, p < 0.001), perceived benefits of COVID-19 infection control (β = 0.20, p = 0.002), educational needs concerning COVID-19 infection control (β = 0.18, p = 0.004), and perceived barriers to COVID-19 infection control (β = 0.16, p = 0.011). To improve preventive health behaviors of nursing students against COVID-19, effective and practical education is required, and a systematic infection prevention education program should be developed considering the fear of COVID-19 infection and the perceived benefits and barriers in infection control.