The Appraisal and Endorsement of Individual and Public Preventive Measures to Combat COVID-19 and the Associated Psychological Predictors among Chinese Living in Canada

Aims: The study examines the factors related to the appraisal and adherence of the individual and public health preventive measures. Background: The effectiveness of the measures battling the pandemic was largely determined by the voluntary compliance of the public. Objectives: This study aimed to identify psychological perception factors related to the appraisal of individual measures and endorsement of public health measures during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic among Chinese living in Canada. Methods: A convenience sample of 656 participants completed an online survey. Nonparametric Kruskal Wallis tests were used to compare COVID perception variables (e.g., perceived susceptibility, fear, perceived severity, and information confusion) among different sociodemographic subgroups. Bootstrapped regression models were used to assess the association of these variables with outcome measures. Results: Compared to their counterpart groups, lower perceived susceptibility was reported by adults 65 years and older (p = .002) or retired (p = .015); greater fear was reported by females (p = .044), those with lower education (p = .001), and Mainland Chinese (p = .033); greater perceived severity was reported by individuals with lower education and smaller household size (ps = .003). Perceived susceptibility was inversely associated with individual measure appraisal (p = .032). Perceived severity was positively associated with individual measure appraisal (p = .005) and public measure endorsement (p < .001). Conclusion: Individual behaviour measure appraisal was predicted by lower perceived susceptibility and higher perceived severity, whereas public health measure endorsement was related to higher perceived severity. These results inform the public and the policymakers about the critical factors that affect the preventive measure appraisal and endorsement.

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Self- versus other-directed outcomes, Machiavellianism, and hypothetical distance in COVID-19 antipandemic messages

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.10109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Yidan Huang ◽

Shu Yang ◽

JiaMin Dai

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Information ◽

Process Model ◽

Online Survey ◽

Fear Appeal ◽

Positive Health ◽

Perceived Severity ◽

Public Health Information ◽

Effective Development ◽

Health Intentions

Public health information with a fear appeal is often used to promote people's positive health intentions. Anchored by the extended parallel process model and trait activation theory, in this study we examined the effects of self- versus other-directed outcomes, Machiavellianism, and hypothetical distance on the effectiveness of fear-appeal information in the context of COVID-19. In an online survey of 303 people in Wuhan, China, we found that respondents high in Machiavellianism reported stronger antipandemic intentions in response to a self-directed compared to an other-directed outcome message. This effect was actualized through the trait of Machiavellianism, moderated by hypothetical distance, and mediated by perceived severity. Our findings have implications for the effective development and delivery of public health information for specific groups, and for encouraging more detailed exploration of personality in relation to epidemiology.

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Acceptance of COVID-19 preventive measures as a tradeoff between health and social outcomes

10.31234/osf.io/ytz8p ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Aymery Constant ◽

Donaldson ◽

Karine Gallopel-Morvan ◽

Jocelyn Raude

Keyword(s):

Process Model ◽

Online Survey ◽

Open Space ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Perceived Efficacy ◽

Protective Measures ◽

Perceived Severity ◽

Acceptance Rates ◽

Effective Public Health

Background: A better understanding of the factors underlying their acceptance may contribute greatly to the design of more effective public health programs during the current and future pandemics. The objectives of the present study were to assess their acceptance after populations experienced their negative effects, and their relationships with COVID-19 perceptions.Methods: Data were collected from 2004 individuals through an online survey conducted 6 to 8 weeks after the first lockdown in France. Participants were asked whether they supported eight COVID-19 preventive measures. COVID-19-related perceptions were also assessed using an adapted version of Witte’s Extended Parallel Process Model, together with sociodemographic and environmental variables.Results: Acceptance rate reached 86.1 % for individual protective measures, such as make mask mandatory in public open space, and 70.0% for collective restrictions, such as isolating the most vulnerable people (80%) or forbidding public gatherings (79.3%). The least popular restrictions were closing all schools/universities and non-essential commerce such as bars and restaurants (57.2%). Acceptance of collective restrictions was positively associated with their perceived efficacy, fear, and perceived severity of COVID-19, and negatively with age older than 60 years. Acceptance of individual protective measures was associated with their perceived efficacy, fear, and perceived severity of COVID-19.Discussion: Acceptance rates of COVID-19 preventive measures were rather high, but varied according to their perceived social cost, and were more related to collective than personal protection. Preventive measures that minimize social costs while controlling the spread of the disease are more likely to be accepted during pandemics.

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Citizen journalism reduces the credibility deficit of authoritarian government in risk communication amid COVID-19 outbreaks

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0260961 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. e0260961

Author(s):

Greg Chih-Hsin Sheen ◽

Hans H. Tung ◽

Wen-Chin Wu

Keyword(s):

Online Survey ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Citizen Journalism ◽

Survey Experiment ◽

Media Audiences ◽

The Public ◽

Authoritarian Government ◽

The Government ◽

Official Sources ◽

Practical Measure

During the outbreak of an epidemic, the success in risk communications to make the public comply with disease preventive measures depends on the public’s trust in the government. In this study, we aim to understand how media audiences update their trust in the government during the COVID-19 outbreak depending on the information they received. We conducted an online survey experiment in February 2020 in Hong Kong (n = 1,016) in which respondents were randomly provided with a government press release and an endorsement either from an official or a non-official source. This study shows that the information from a non-official source enhances the credibility of official government messages. Our findings imply that dictators can actually “borrow credibility” from their citizen journalists and even nondemocratic leaders can make themselves more trustworthy to potential dissenters through citizen journalism. Allowing information flow from non-official sources can be a practical measure for governments to address the problem of a credibility deficit during a pandemic.

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Knowledge Sharing, Individualism, Collectivism and Organizational Innovative Behaviour in the Public Health Organizations

10.31124/advance.16988038 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Khawaja Asif Tasneem ◽

Saba Feroz Qureshi

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Knowledge Sharing ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Online Survey ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Positive Influence ◽

Innovative Behavior ◽

The Public ◽

Innovative Behaviour ◽

Public Health Institutions

<p>The purpose of this paper is to investigate that either individualists or collectivists employees are more innovative in the public sector concerning knowledge sharing and organizational culture. The study adopted quantitative research technique and data was collected through an online survey. We collected data from a field study of 480 employees working in Pakistan's two major public health institutions to test the study's hypotheses. The study adopted a hierarchical linear regression model to test the hypothesis. Our results show that there is a significant positive influence of organizational-based knowledge sharing, individual-based knowledge sharing, collectivism, and individualism on organizational innovative behavior in the organizations. Furthermore, this study also found a significant positive impact of collectivism and individualism as moderators on organizational innovative behavior. Finally, this study concluded that collectivism has a higher positive impact on organizational innovative behavior in comparison to individualism. </p>

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Influence of Wearing Surgical Mask on Interpersonal Space Perception Between Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese People

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.692404 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Yu-Chi Lee ◽

Yi-Lang Chen

Keyword(s):

Online Survey ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Mainland China ◽

Space Perception ◽

Mask Condition ◽

Mainland Chinese ◽

Surgical Masks ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Taiwanese People ◽

Interpersonal Space

Wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing of 1.5m are two common preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19. However, the interaction of these preventive measures in interpersonal space (IPS) perception remains unknown. This study evaluated the effects of wearing surgical masks, sex dyads, and approaching patterns on IPS judgment. Data were collected from participants from Mainland China (n=100) and Taiwan (n=100) through an online survey. Therefore, the regional differences were also examined. A smaller IPS was observed when participants faced confederates wearing surgical masks than in the no-mask condition. Female dyads tended to maintain a smaller IPS than did both male and mixed-sex dyads, and Taiwanese participants maintained a significantly larger IPS than did Mainland Chinese participants. No significant difference was observed between the active and passive pattern. Moreover, the interaction between region and mask had a significant influence on IPS perception. Among all test combinations, only the IPS perceived by Taiwanese participants facing confederates without surgical masks exceeded 1.5m. This study revealed that the wearing of surgical masks for health protection during the pandemic influences IPS perception in different regions. The current findings may provide useful information for social interaction and environmental design during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and public health measures: results from an anonymous online survey in Thailand, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Italy and Slovenia

10.1101/2020.10.26.20209361 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anne Osterrieder ◽

Giulia Cuman ◽

Wirichada Pan-ngum ◽

Phaik Kin Cheah ◽

Phee-Kheng Cheah ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Online Survey ◽

Social Groups ◽

List Type ◽

Health Measures ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

New Findings ◽

Education Levels ◽

Lower Education ◽

Economic And Social Impacts

AbstractIn the absence of a vaccine and widely available treatments for COVID-19, governments have relied primarily on non-pharmaceutical interventions to curb the pandemic. To aid understanding of the impact of these public health measures on different social groups we conducted a mixed-methods study in five countries (‘SEBCOV - Social, ethical and behavioural aspects of COVID-19’). Here we report the results of the SEBCOV anonymous online survey of adults.Overall, 5,058 respondents from Thailand, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Italy and Slovenia completed the self-administered survey between May and June 2020. Post-stratification weighting was applied, and associations between categorical variables assessed.Among the five countries, Thai respondents appeared to have been most, and Slovenian respondents least, affected economically. Overall, lower education levels, larger households, having children under 18 in the household, being 65 years or older and having flexible/no income were associated with worse economic impact. Regarding social impact, respondents expressed most concern about their social life, physical health, and mental health and wellbeing.There were large differences between countries in terms of voluntary behavioural change, and in compliance and agreement with COVID-19 restrictions. Overall, self-reported compliance was higher among respondents reporting a high understanding of COVID-19. UK respondents felt able to cope the longest and Thai respondents the shortest with only going out for essential needs or work, with 60% and 26% respectively able to cope with 29 days or longer. Many respondents reported seeing news that seemed fake to them, the proportion varying between countries, and with education level and self-reported levels of understanding of COVID-19.Our data showed that COVID-19 public health measures have uneven economic and social impacts on people from different countries and social groups. Understanding the factors associated with these impacts can help to inform future public health interventions and mitigate their negative consequences on people’s lives.SummaryWhat is already known?COVID-19 public health measures and lockdowns most negatively affect those who are socio-economically disadvantaged.Misinformation about COVID-19 is widespread.What are the new findings?In the countries in which we conducted our survey, lower education levels, larger households, having children under 18 in the household, being 65 years or older and having flexible/no income were associated with worse economic impact.There were large differences between countries in terms of voluntary change of behaviour, as well as compliance and agreement with COVID-19 related public health measures.Younger age and lower education levels appear to be associated with lower self-perceived levels of understanding of COVID-19.A significant proportion of the population received conflicting information and news that seemed fake to them, in particular about coronavirus being an engineered modified virus.What do the new findings imply?Our findings imply that there are significant differences in how people from different social groups and different countries experienced COVID-19 and related public health measures, and any support initiatives should take this into account.Our findings confirm that communication around COVID-19 could be improved, and help identify specific areas to target (e.g. origin of virus) and specific groups of people who may benefit most from improved communication (e.g. younger people, those with lower levels education).

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Personality Goes a Long Way (for Some). An Experimental Investigation Into Candidate Personality Traits, Voters’ Profile, and Perceived Likeability

Frontiers in Political Science ◽

10.3389/fpos.2021.636745 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandro Nai ◽

Jürgen Maier ◽

Jug Vranić

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Online Survey ◽

Detrimental Effect ◽

Political Representation ◽

Dark Triad ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Political Candidates ◽

The Public ◽

Candidate Evaluations ◽

Candidate Personality

The personality traits of political candidates, and the way these are perceived by the public at large, matter for political representation and electoral behavior. Disentangling the effects of partisanship and perceived personality on candidate evaluations is however notoriously a tricky business, as voters tend to evaluate the personality of candidates based on their partisan preferences. In this article we tackle this issue via innovative experimental data. We present what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study that manipulates the personality traits of a candidate and assesses its subsequent effects. The design, embedded in an online survey distributed to a convenience sample of US respondents (MTurk, N = 1,971), exposed respondents randomly to one of eight different “vignettes” presenting personality cues for a fictive candidate - one vignette for each of the five general traits (Big Five) and the three “nefarious” traits of the Dark Triad. Our results show that 1) the public at large dislikes “dark” politicians, and rate them significantly and substantially lower in likeability; 2) voters that themselves score higher on “dark” personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) tend to like dark candidates, in such a way that the detrimental effect observed in general is completely reversed for them; 3) the effects of candidates’ personality traits are, in some cases, stronger for respondents displaying a weaker partisan attachment.

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Use of Health Belief Model–Based Deep Learning Classifiers for COVID-19 Social Media Content to Examine Public Perceptions of Physical Distancing: Model Development and Case Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.20493 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar ◽

Soon Guan Tan ◽

Hwee Lin Wee

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Public Perceptions ◽

Perceived Barriers ◽

Classification Models ◽

Perceived Severity ◽

The Public ◽

Health Authorities ◽

Public Health Authorities

BACKGROUND Public health authorities have been recommending interventions such as physical distancing and face masks, to curtail the transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) within the community. Public perceptions toward such interventions should be identified to enable public health authorities to effectively address valid concerns. The Health Belief Model (HBM) has been used to characterize user-generated content from social media during previous outbreaks, with the aim of understanding the health behaviors of the public. OBJECTIVE This study is aimed at developing and evaluating deep learning–based text classification models for classifying social media content posted during the COVID-19 outbreak, using the four key constructs of the HBM. We will specifically focus on content related to the physical distancing interventions put forth by public health authorities. We intend to test the model with a real-world case study. METHODS The data set for this study was prepared by analyzing Facebook comments that were posted by the public in response to the COVID-19–related posts of three public health authorities: the Ministry of Health of Singapore (MOH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Public Health England. The comments made in the context of physical distancing were manually classified with a Yes/No flag for each of the four HBM constructs: perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits. Using a curated data set of 16,752 comments, gated recurrent unit–based recurrent neural network models were trained and validated for text classification. Accuracy and binary cross-entropy loss were used to evaluate the model. Specificity, sensitivity, and balanced accuracy were used to evaluate the classification results in the MOH case study. RESULTS The HBM text classification models achieved mean accuracy rates of 0.92, 0.95, 0.91, and 0.94 for the constructs of perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers, respectively. In the case study with MOH Facebook comments, specificity was above 96% for all HBM constructs. Sensitivity was 94.3% and 90.9% for perceived severity and perceived benefits, respectively. In addition, sensitivity was 79.6% and 81.5% for perceived susceptibility and perceived barriers, respectively. The classification models were able to accurately predict trends in the prevalence of the constructs for the time period examined in the case study. CONCLUSIONS The deep learning–based text classifiers developed in this study help to determine public perceptions toward physical distancing, using the four key constructs of HBM. Health officials can make use of the classification model to characterize the health behaviors of the public through the lens of social media. In future studies, we intend to extend the model to study public perceptions of other important interventions by public health authorities.

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Face Mask Wearing Behaviors, Depressive Symptoms, and Health Beliefs Among Older People During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Frontiers in Medicine ◽

10.3389/fmed.2021.590936 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Rick Yiu Cho Kwan ◽

Paul Hong Lee ◽

Daphne Sze Ki Cheung ◽

Simon Ching Lam

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Older People ◽

Disease Severity ◽

Health Beliefs ◽

Online Survey ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Preventive Measure ◽

Face Mask ◽

Community Dwelling ◽

Perceived Severity

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 100 countries. Despite the global shortage of face masks, the public has adopted universal mask wearing as a preventive measure in many Asian countries. The COVID-19 mortality rate is higher among older people, who may find that wearing a face mask protects their physical health but jeopardizes their mental health. This study aimed to explore the associations between depressive symptoms, health beliefs, and face mask wearing behaviors among older people. By means of an online survey conducted between March and April 2020, we assessed depressive symptoms, health beliefs regarding COVID-19, and face mask use and reuse among community-dwelling older people. General linear models were employed to explore the associations among these variables. Of the 355 valid participants, 25.6% experienced depressive symptoms. Health beliefs regarding the perceived severity of disease (p = 0.001) and perceived efficacy of practicing preventive measures (p = 0.005) were positively associated with face mask use. Those who reused face masks (p = 0.008) had a stronger belief in disease severity (p < 0.001), had poorer cues to preventive measures (p = 0.002), and were more likely to experience depressive symptoms. Mask reuse was significantly associated with depression only among those who perceived the disease as serious (p = 0.025) and those who had poorer cues to preventive measures (p = 0.004). In conclusion, health beliefs regarding perceived severity and efficacy contributed to more frequent face mask use, which was unrelated to depressive symptoms. Older people who had a stronger belief in disease severity had less adequate cues to preventive measures and reused face masks experienced greater depressive symptoms. A moderation effect of health beliefs (i.e., disease severity and cues to preventive measures) on face mask reuse and depression was observed.

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‘Where and how do you buy medicines?’ A pilot survey of consumption strategies among the public in Sweden

Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/pubmed/fdz075 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. e268-e271 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

S Lundin ◽

R Liu

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Online Survey ◽

Research Area ◽

Short Report ◽

Sociocultural Perspective ◽

The Public ◽

Pilot Survey ◽

Medical Products ◽

Market Formation ◽

Consumption Strategies

Abstract Background Substandard and falsified (SF) medical products are a major danger to public health. They affect every region of the world, and have been identified in all major therapeutic categories. Studies from medicine, pharmacology, law and public health dominate this research area with a focus on the supply side. However, the spread of SF medical products cannot be fully understood without information about the demand side or a sociocultural perspective on market formation. The aim of this short report is to present findings from a pilot study that examines the attitudes of the Swedish public regarding consumption of medicines. Methods We conducted a pilot survey in 2016 ‘Where and how do you buy medicines?’ using LimeSurvey, an open-source online survey software. In total 155 respondents completed the survey. Results The majority of respondents turn to doctors within healthcare for prescription-only medicines (POM). Simultaneously, some respondents would consider buying POMs without prior contact with experts even if medicines may come from unsafe sources. Conclusions There is a tendency that people move away from formal healthcare towards an unregulated market. In parallel, people’s approach to doctors becomes more personalized and pragmatic than in former patriarchal relationships. Risk becomes a negotiable concept.

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