ADHERENCE TO COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: MEDIATING EFFECTS OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AMONG MARKET MEN AND WOMEN IN OGUN STATE

Adherence to WHO COVID-19 preventive protocols has been a serious issue in Nigeria
and this phenomenon is worrisome to public health practitioners including health
educators because, from all indications, obeying precautionary measures has been a great
challenge especially among market men and women including their customers. This study
examined the impact of demographic characteristics of market men and women on
adherence to COVID-19 protocols in Ogun State. The study adopted descriptive survey
research design where structured and validated questionnaire was used as the instrument
for data collection. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample for
the study from the old Ijebu and Egba components of the State: Ita-Osu new market Ijebu-
Ode and Oba Lipede Market Abeokuta were purposively selected for the study. In each of
the market, n=250 market men and women were randomly selected using simple random
sampling technique to make a total sample of n=500 in all, out of this, n=481
questionnaires were retrieved to make a total of 96.0% rate of return. The data collected
was analyzed with the aid of SPSS version 21.0 windows using simple percentages, Mean,
Standard Deviation, T-test, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), and Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA) at 0.05 levels of significance. The major findings of this study were that market
men and women in Ogun State possessed low level of adherence to COVID-I9 preventive
Protocols. In addition, finding also indicated that there is a significant association
between gender, religious affiliation, income level, age, type of business and family
structure on the level of adherence to COVID-19 preventive precautions. Based on the
above, it is therefore recommended that the health educators should be more involved to
disseminate information on curbing further spread of COVID-19 by sufficiently adhering
to the preventive protocols in Nigeria.