effectiveness of a community-based intervention (cbi) based on the protection motivation theory (pmt) in preventing covid-19 infection among bank employees

Background: the covid-19 virus has caused concern and fear among people worldwide. this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a community- based intervention (cbi) based on the protection motivation theory in preventing covid-19 infection among bank employees. materials and methods: this research was a quasi-experimental study (pre- and post-intervention). the study participants were 180 bank employees selected randomly from banks in sirjan. the cbi was conducted over three months, and participants received educational interventions about promoting health-related behaviors and improving their working environment. data were collected by a questionnaire with 62 questions in four parts: demographic information, knowledge, questions related to the structures of pmt, and questions about behaviors. data was analyzed by paired t-test and mc nemar’s test in spss23 software. results: the mean age of participants was 41.6 ± 2.16. there were significant differences in the mean scores of knowledge and perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, response efficiency, rewards, self-efficacy, response cost, fear, and protection motivation after the cbi (p<0.05). also, health behaviors improved significantly after the cbi (p<0.001); for example, the prevalence of regular hand washing among the target group increased from 36.6% to 93.4%. conclusion: the results showed that protection motivation theory was effective in improving covid-19 prevention strategies among bank employees and may help prevent infection and control this disease outbreak.