scholarly journals COVID-19 risk perceptions and their associations with related media consumption and personal experiences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Douglas Brown ◽  
Lynne Coventry ◽  
Gillian V Pepper
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Demographic Differences ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk

Background The impacts of COVID-19 are not evenly distributed in society. Understanding the differences in the experiences and perceptions of COVID-19 related risk may help to improve the effectiveness of public health strategies in the future. MethodWe surveyed a nationally representative sample of 496 participants during the strictest period of the UK lockdown. We recorded data to assess people’s experiences during the pandemic, information seeking behaviours, and perceptions of COVID-19 related risk. ResultsWe found that key workers reported greater exposure to COVID-19 and more extensive experience of the virus within their social circles. Those key workers who perceived their personal protective equipment to be more effective felt that the virus was less of a threat to their lives. Trust in COVID-19 information was highest in information from the UK Government and NHS, and lowest in information from social media. We also found that men reported lower levels of perceived threat to life from the virus than women and lower occupational class was associated with higher levels of perceived risk amongst those in employment. ConclusionsOur findings highlight that demographic differences in actual risk from COVID-19 are not always accurately reflected by differences in perceived risk. Key workers who feel that they are insufficiently protected by their PPE experience increased levels of fear, which may lead to negative health behaviours. This highlights the need for employers to ensure that key workers feel they are adequately protected from COVID-19. Our findings highlight some of the inequalities in the distribution of risk across society and discuss demographic differences in perceptions of risk.

scholarly journals COVID-19: the relationship between perceptions of risk and behaviours during lockdown

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Douglas Brown ◽  
Lynne Coventry ◽  
Gillian V Pepper
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
Extrinsic Mortality ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Threat To Life

Background Understanding COVID-19 risk perceptions and their impact on behaviour can improve the effectiveness of public health strategies in the future. Prior evidence suggests that, when people perceive uncontrollable risks to their health, they are less likely to make efforts to protect their health in those ways which they can control (e.g. through diet, exercise, and limiting alcohol intake). It is therefore important to understand the extent to which the threat of COVID-19 is perceived to be an uncontrollable risk, and to assess whether this perceived risk is associated with differences in health behaviour. MethodsWe surveyed a nationally representative sample of 496 participants, shortly after the peak of the pandemic in the UK. We collected data to assess people’s perceptions of COVID-19-related risk, and how these perceptions were associated with behaviours. We examined self-reported adherence to behaviours recommended by the UK Government and National Health Service to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as more general health behaviours. We predicted that increased perceived extrinsic mortality risk (the portion of a person’s mortality risk which they perceive to be uncontrollable) would disincentivise healthy behaviour. ResultsPerceived threat to life was found to be the most consistent predictor of reported adherence to measures designed to prevent the spread of infection. Perceived extrinsic mortality risk was found to have increased due to the pandemic, and was also associated with lower reported adherence to Government advice on diet and physical activity, as well as smoking. ConclusionsOur findings suggest that promoting a message that highlights threat to life may be effective in raising levels of adherence to measures of infection control, but may also have unintended consequences, leading to a reduction in health-promoting behaviours. We suggest that messages that highlight threat to life should be accompanied by statements of efficacy, and that messages evoking feelings of concern for others may also be effective in promoting compliance with anti-infection measures.

How beliefs about weight malleability and risk perceptions for obesity influence parents’ information seeking and feeding

2021 ◽  
pp. 135910532110614
Author(s):  
Charlotte J Hagerman ◽  
Rebecca A Ferrer ◽  
Susan Persky
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Implicit Theories ◽  
Risk Information ◽  
Junk Food ◽  
Obesity Risk ◽  
Child Feeding

This study surveyed 185 parents to determine whether their perceived risk of their child developing obesity and their implicit theories about the malleability of weight independently and/or interactively predict their child-feeding and pursuit of child-related obesity risk information. Higher risk perceptions were associated with healthier feeding intentions and more information seeking. More incremental (malleable) beliefs predicted healthier feeding intentions and greater pursuit of environmental, but not genetic, information. Contrary to hypotheses, the influence of implicit theories and risk perceptions were primarily independent; however, more incremental beliefs predicted less “junk food” feeding among only parents with lower perceived risk.

scholarly journals Effects of a Nicotine Fact Sheet on Perceived Risk of Nicotine and E-Cigarettes and Intentions to Seek Information About and Use E-Cigarettes

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Yang ◽  
Daniel Owusu ◽  
Lucy Popova
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Electronic Cigarettes ◽  
Absolute Risk ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Dual Use ◽  
Fact Sheet ◽  
Related Disease ◽  
Comparative Risk

We examined how a nicotine fact sheet influenced smokers’ beliefs about nicotine and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), a potentially less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. In an exploratory online experiment, 756 US adult current and recent former smokers (quit in the past 2 years) were randomized to view a nicotine fact sheet or control messages (bottled water ads). Effects of the nicotine fact sheet on perceived nicotine addictiveness, nicotine risk, comparative risk of e-cigarettes, and dual use intentions were analyzed using log-Poisson regression with robust error. Linear regression analyzed effects on perceived absolute risk and switching and information seeking intentions about e-cigarettes. Compared to control, the nicotine fact sheet doubled the probability of disagreeing that nicotine is the main cause of smoking-related disease (26.2% vs. 12.7%, RR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.51, 2.82, p < 0.001). However, nearly three quarters of participants viewing the nicotine fact sheet still thought that nicotine is the main cause of smoking-related disease. The nicotine fact sheet increased smokers’ intentions to seek information about e-cigarettes (b = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.15, 0.74, p = 0.003). We did not find evidence suggesting unintended consequences of the nicotine fact sheet on smokers’ e-cigarettes risk perceptions or use intentions (e.g., increased dual use intentions or reduced absolute e-cigarette risk perception).

Using Episodic Future Thinking to Pre-Experience Climate Change Increases Pro-Environmental Behavior

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Shan Lee ◽  
Yu-Hsien Sung ◽  
Chia-Chun Wu ◽  
Liang-Chu Ho ◽  
Wen-Bin Chiou
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Episodic Future Thinking ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Conditioning Experiment ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Future Events

Research has found that many people view climate change as a psychologically distant, future threat, which leads them to be less motivated to engage in pro-environmental behavior. Engaging in episodic future thinking (EFT; projecting the self into the future to pre-experience future events) may facilitate the perception of future events as psychologically close, thereby increasing the perceived risk associated with those events. Therefore, engagement in EFT regarding climate change–related risks should induce higher risk perceptions and lead to acting pro-environmentally. In two experiments, we demonstrated that engaging in EFT to pre-experience climate change–related risk events was associated with a higher level of risk perception and a greater tendency toward pro-environmental behavior, including energy-saving use of air-conditioning (Experiment 1), willingness to participate in beach cleaning (Experiment 2), and choice of a meal with lower environmental impact (Experiment 2). The current research provides experimental evidence for an innovative approach to improving public engagement with climate change.

scholarly journals Individual and school-class correlates of youth cannabis use in Sweden

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik Karlsson ◽  
Mats Ekendahl ◽  
Isabella Gripe ◽  
Jonas Raninen
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
School Class ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Class Level ◽  
Class Context ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual

Background and aims: The school-class context is a crucial social environment for young people but substance use researchers have largely overlooked potential influences operating at this level. This study explores associations between school-class and individual-level factors and cannabis use in Swedish youth. Data and methods: Data comprised four waves (2012–2015) of the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs’ (CAN) nationally representative school surveys among individuals in 9th and 11th grade. For the present analyses, we had data on totally 28,729 individuals from 2377 unique school classes. Multilevel logistic regressions predicted lifetime and 10+ times use of cannabis from both individual-level predictors and school-class-level measures derived from the individual-level variables. Results: There were individual-level associations between most predictor variables and cannabis use. An early debut of tobacco use and binge drinking as well as low cannabis related risk perceptions had strong associations with cannabis use. Conversely, several school-class-level variables had aggregate relationships with cannabis use, most notably the overall level of risk perceptions in the school class. Some of the school-class factors predicted cannabis use over and above the individual-level covariates, suggesting the presence of contextual effects. Surprisingly, while female gender was negatively related with cannabis use at the individual level, a higher proportion of females in the classroom increased the odds for lifetime cannabis use even after controlling for individual and other contextual-level covariates. Conclusions: Youth cannabis use is related to various factors at both the individual and school-class level in Sweden. Truancy and perceived risk related to cannabis use had contextual associations with cannabis use. The positive contextual association between a higher proportion of females in the classroom and lifetime use should be explored further.

scholarly journals Understanding health behavior changes in response to outbreaks: findings from a longitudinal study of a large epidemic of mosquito-borne disease.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Raude ◽  
Kathleen McColl ◽  
Claude Flamand ◽  
Themis Apostolidis
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Preventive Action ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Preventive Actions ◽  
Social Visibility ◽  
Regional Health Authorities ◽  
Protective Behaviours

Rationale. Although greater attention has been recently given to the ecological determinants of health behaviours, we still do not know much about the behavioural changes induced by the spread of infectious diseases. Objective. In this study, we took advantage of a large epidemic of chikungunya, an emerging mosquito-borne disease, in French Guiana to examine the dynamic interaction between risk-related perceptions and behaviours that occurs in response to a disease outbreak. In particular, we tested empirically the assumption that both risk perceptions and health behaviours were elastic with respect to prevalence of chikungunya. Methods. A representative sample of French Guianan (N=434) was interviewed in January 2015 just after the peak of the epidemic, and again 2 months later. Participants were asked about their perceptions of the threat, as well as their engagement in a range of protective behaviours promoted by the regional health authorities to control the spread of the disease. Results. The surveys showed that (1) the frequency of some health behaviours – those related to visible control methods – significantly increased with the subjective and objective prevalence of the disease, (2) perceived risk of infection for oneself tended to decrease considerably over time, and (3) the risk reappraisal hypothesis failed to account for this paradoxical trend in the people’s response to the risk of contracting the disease. Conclusion. These findings suggest that people may fail to adjust their risk perceptions, and to a lesser extent their health protective behaviours, to the course of an epidemic. Notably, the prevalence elasticity of preventive action found in previous studies of behavioural response to infectious diseases differed substantially according to the type of intervention (personal versus environmental methods). This paradoxical trend may be attributed to risk habituation effects, which seem to vary significantly according to the social visibility of the preventive actions.

scholarly journals Imagining Personally-Relevant Outcomes Influences Perceived Risk of Viral Transmission for Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa Hannah Sinclair ◽  
Matthew Stanley ◽  
Shabnam Hakimi ◽  
Roberto Cabeza ◽  
R. Alison Adcock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Significant Risk Factor ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Adverse Health Outcomes ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Influenza Outbreaks

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a serious and prolonged public-health emergency. Older adults have been at significantly greater risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death due to COVID-19; as of February 2021, over 81% of COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. occurred for people over the age of 65. Converging evidence from around the world suggests that age is the most significant risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness and for the experience of adverse health outcomes. Therefore, effectively communicating health-related risk information requires tailoring interventions to older adults’ needs. Using a novel informational intervention with a nationally-representative sample of 546 U.S. residents, we found that older adults reported increased perceived risk of COVID-19 transmission after imagining a personalized scenario with social consequences. Although older adults tended to forget numerical information over time, the personalized simulations elicited increases in perceived risk that persisted over a 1-3 week delay. Overall, our results bear broad implications for communicating information about health risks to older adults, and suggest new strategies to combat annual influenza outbreaks.

scholarly journals COVID-19: the relationship between perceptions of risk and behaviours during lockdown

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Brown ◽  
Lynne Coventry ◽  
Gillian Pepper
Keyword(s):  
Infection Control ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Extrinsic Mortality ◽  
Infection Control Measures ◽  
Threat To Life ◽  
Healthy Behaviour

Abstract Aim Understanding COVID-19 risk perceptions and their impact on behaviour can improve the effectiveness of public health strategies. Prior evidence suggests that, when people perceive uncontrollable risks to their health, they are less likely to engage in healthful behaviour. This article aims to understand the extent to which COVID-19 is perceived as an uncontrollable risk, and to assess whether this perceived risk is associated with health behaviour. Subject and methods We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 496 participants during the first UK lockdown. We assessed perceptions of COVID-19-related risk, self-reported adherence to infection control measures recommended by the UK Government, and general health behaviours. We predicted that increased perceived extrinsic mortality risk (the portion of mortality risk perceived to be uncontrollable) would disincentivise healthy behaviour. Results Perceived threat to life was the most consistent predictor of reported adherence to infection control measures. Perceived extrinsic mortality risk was found to have increased due to the pandemic, and was associated with lower reported adherence to Government advice on diet, physical activity, and smoking. Conclusions Our findings suggest that health messages that highlight threat to life may be effective in increasing adherence to infection control, but may also lead to a reduction in health-promoting behaviours. We suggest that messages that highlight threat to life should be accompanied by statements of efficacy. Further, messages evoking feelings of concern for others may be effective in promoting compliance with anti-infection measures, without the potential for the unwelcome side-effect of discouraging healthy behaviour.

scholarly journals Effects of Framing Nicotine Reduction in Cigarettes on Anticipated Tobacco Product Use Intentions and Risk Perceptions Among US Adult Smokers

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S108-S116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Popova ◽  
Daniel Owusu ◽  
Amy L Nyman ◽  
Scott R Weaver ◽  
Bo Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tobacco Use ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tobacco Product ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Government ◽  
Product Standard ◽  
Nicotine Reduction

Abstract Introduction In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed lowering the amount of nicotine in combusted cigarettes to minimally addictive levels. If used, to encourage cessation and maximize the benefits of this action, the FDA needs to determine the most effective way to communicate to the public the practical impact of this nicotine tobacco product standard. Methods Data were collected in 2018 from a nationally representative, online probability sample of 1198 adult smokers (aged ≥18 years old) in the United States. Smokers were randomly assigned one of five versions of the question regarding what they would most likely do if nicotine in cigarettes was reduced (nicotine levels were reduced by 95%; the government reduced nicotine levels by 95%; cigarettes were no longer addictive; cigarettes no longer relieved cravings; cigarettes were changed so that you would be able to quit more easily). Effects of framing on anticipated tobacco use intentions and perceived risk of very low nicotine cigarettes (VLNCs) were evaluated with multinomial logistic regressions. Results Framing the nicotine tobacco product standard as cigarettes no longer relieved cravings resulted in the highest proportion of smokers reporting they intend to quit in response to this standard (43.9%), lowest proportions reporting anticipated intentions to continue using combusted tobacco products (45.3%), and lowest proportion believing that VLNCs are less harmful than regular cigarettes (26%). Conclusions Different frames of nicotine reduction in cigarettes differentially affected smokers’ anticipated tobacco use intentions and perceived risk of VLNCs. Presenting reduction as making cigarettes unable to relieve cravings might be particularly effective at motivating cessation.

scholarly journals Do Demographic Traits Matter? Backpackers’ Information Technology and Destination-Related Risk Concerns Towards Smartphone Usage

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Frederick Dayour
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Travel Experience ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Demographic Traits ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Risks Factors ◽  
Demographic Attributes

A number of risks are associated with the use of mobile phones. However, there is still a paucity of evidence on the extent to which demographics influence risk perceptions of smartphone usage. This paper examines backpackers’ perceived risk of smartphone usage and the extent to which demographic attributes influence risk perceptions. A survey involving 567 backpackers was conducted in Ghana. The CFA, ANOVA and independent samples t-test were used to analyse the data. The study showed the relevance of coalescing information technology and destination risks factors in measuring perceived risks towards smartphone usage before assessing the effects of demographics on perceived risk. Importantly, backpackers’ risk perceptions are a function of their demographic traits, such as sex, age, education, income, occupation, continent of origin and travel experience. The theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

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