Preventing the COVID-19 Outbreak in Vietnam: Social Media Campaign Exposure and the Role of Interpersonal Communication

ABSTRACT

The present study focused on the success story of Vietnam’s ability to control the COVID-19 outbreak in the early stages to examine the associations between exposure to the Vietnam Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 prevention social media campaign messages, interpersonal communication, attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, and intentions to stay at home. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with residents in Ho Chi Minh City (N = 360). Results from mediation analyses indicated that interpersonal communication mediated the effect of social media campaign exposure on intentions to stay at home. Moreover, interpersonal communication shaped injunctive norms and self-efficacy that were conducive to behavioral intentions. These results underscored the need to leverage the power of social media and interpersonal communication in public health campaigns to prevent infectious outbreaks.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.