Changing population health behavior strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The article examines social problems that have arisen in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on changing the population’s usual health strategies. Based on a review of different sources, conclusions are drawn that similar social situations associated with infectious diseases have repeatedly arisen in the society. However, at this stage, heads of the governments and international organizations are included in the decision-making process, and implementation of the decisions concerns the overwhelming number of citizens of the world community. Some decisions are restrictive, and some are coercive. The purpose of this article is to consider the extent to which changes in the social situation affect people’s behavior, their personal life strategies, in particular health strategies, the reasonableness of making individual decisions in relation to health, their assessments of the epidemic situation, and building relationships with social institutions. The empirical base is the data of our own empirical research, as well as secondary materials. Empirical part of the study is based on data from the author’s survey conducted in 2020-2021 (December-March), in Khabarovsk (n-227) and data from sociological survey and materials of the joint analytical report by VTsIOM and ANO “Special Opinion Research Center” (April 2021).