Public Perception and Obedience with Social DistancingPolicies during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian Government established a social distancing policy to prevent COVID-19 transmission. However, this implementation will be ineffective withoutthe compliance of the people. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between public perception and obedience with social distancing in terms of thevariables based on the Health Belief Model. This study used a cross-sectional design with a population of Daerah Khusus Ibukota(DKI) Jakarta's indigeneswithin the productive age of 15-64 years. The sample comprised 408 participants, with the independent variables of sociodemographics (age, gender, occupation, and education) and health beliefs (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy). Meanwhile, obedience to social distancingwas the dependent variable. Data were obtained through an online questionnaire and evaluated with the bivariate and multivariate analysis using Chi-squareand logistic regression tests. Gender (OR = 2.327; 95% CI = 1.404-3.857) and perceived self-efficacy (OR = 2.609; 95% CI = 1.726-3.945) were significantlyrelated to social distancing obedience. Meanwhile, no statistical correlation (p-value>0.05) was found with sociodemographics, perceived susceptibility,severity, benefits, and barriers. The males with low self-efficacy were more likely to disobey the social distancing policies. The individual's self-efficacy perception increased with their level of obedience to social distancing policies.