The Psychological Impact of COVID-19 in Italy: Worry Leads to Protective Behavior, but at the Cost of Anxiety

The World Health Organization defined COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, due to the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in all continents. Italy had already witnessed a very fast spread that brought the Government to place the entire country under quarantine on March 11, reaching more than 30,700 fatalities in 2 months. We hypothesized that the pandemic and related compulsory quarantine would lead to an increase of anxiety state and protective behaviors to avoid infections. We aimed to investigate whether protective behaviors might have been enhanced or limited by anxiety and emotional reactions to previous experience of stressful conditions. We collected data from 618 Italian participants, by means of an online survey. Participants were asked to rate their level of worry for the pandemic, and to complete two questionnaires measuring the anxiety level: the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI-Y) and the Pre-traumatic stress reaction checklist (Pre-Cl). Finally, the respondents were also asked to report about their compliance with protective behaviors suggested to avoid the spread of the virus (e.g., washing hands). Results show that respondents with higher levels of worry reported higher levels of anxiety and pre-traumatic reactions, with positive correlations among the three measurements, and that higher frequency of the three protective behaviors were put in place by respondents with higher levels of worry. Moreover, regression analysis showed that worry for COVID-19 was most predicted by age, anxiety levels, and Pre-traumatic stress. These results could be interpreted in an evolutionary framework, in which the level of worry leads persons to become more cautious (protective behaviors) maximizing long-term survival at the cost of short-term dysregulation (anxiety).

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Handwashing Adherence and the Trajectory of COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from 14 Countries

10.21203/rs.3.rs-515082/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zofia Szczuka ◽

Charles Abraham ◽

Adriana Baban ◽

Sydney Brooks ◽

Sabrina Cipolletta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Online Survey ◽

Morbidity And Mortality ◽

Health Policies ◽

World Health ◽

Protective Behavior ◽

Protective Behaviors ◽

Multilevel Regression ◽

Country Level ◽

Registration Date

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s engagement in health behaviors, especially those that protect individuals from SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as handwashing/sanitizing. Associations between the pandemic’s trajectory and engagement in the protective behavior of handwashing are unclear. This study investigated whether adherence to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) handwashing guidelines is associated with (i) total cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality accumulated since the onset of the pandemic, (ii) recent cases (country-level COVID-19 morbidity/mortality in the 14 days prior to data collection), (iii) increases/acceleration in recent cases (country-level COVID-19 morbidity/mortality in the previous 14 days minus cases recorded 14-28 days earlier), and (iv) stringency of the national containment-and-health policies (in the 7 days prior to data collection).Methods: The observational study (#NCT04367337) enrolled 6,064 adults residing in Australia, Canada, China, France, Gambia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, and Switzerland. Data on cross-situational handwashing adherence were collected via an online survey (March–July 2020). Individual data were matched with the WHO daily reports of COVID-19 and indices of containment-and-health policies. Country-level human development index and sociodemographic variables were controlled.Results: Multilevel regression models indicated that as the total cases of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality grew higher, handwashing adherence decreased. As increases in recent cases of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality occurred, handwashing adherence increased. Higher levels of containment-and-health policy index were associated with lower handwashing.Conclusions: Research investigating protective behaviors should account for indicators of fluctuations of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality, besides accounting for time since the beginning of the pandemic.Trial Registration: Clinical Trials.Gov, #NCT04367337, first registration date: 29/04/2020

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PROTECTIVE BEHAVIOR AGAINST COVID-19 AMONG VIETNAMESE PEOPLE IN THE SOCIAL DISTANCING CAMPAIGN A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

10.31219/osf.io/5sxgp ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

AISDL

Keyword(s):

Online Survey ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Protective Behavior ◽

Protective Behaviors ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Precautionary Measures ◽

Gender Knowledge

In the global fight against the rapid spread of COVID-19, a variety of unprecedented preventive measures have been implemented across the globe, as well as in Vietnam. How Vietnamese people respond to threats to their health and life remains unclear. For this reason, the current study aims to examine Vietnamese people’s protective behavior and its factors. Based on 1,798 online survey respondents’ data collected on the last three days of the nationwide social distancing campaign in mid-April, it is found that gender, knowledge of COVID-19 and preventive measures, and attitudes towards the COVID-19 prevention policies are the three main factors of participants’ protective behaviors. We also find that males are less likely than females to adopt precautionary measures. People who are knowledgeable about COVID-19 may have inappropriate practices towards it. Further research is needed to examine other determinants of protective behaviors to provide more useful information for authorities, public health policy-makers, and healthcare workers to deliver the best practices to control COVID-19 in our country.

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Investigating Health-Related Features and Their Impact on the Prediction of Diabetes Using Machine Learning

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11031173 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 1173

Author(s):

Hafiz Farooq Ahmad ◽

Hamid Mukhtar ◽

Hesham Alaqail ◽

Mohamed Seliaman ◽

Abdulaziz Alhumam

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Risk Factors ◽

Large Scale ◽

Cost Effective ◽

World Health ◽

Evaluation Metrics ◽

Diabetic Patients ◽

The World ◽

The Government ◽

The Cost

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases leading to severe health complications that may cause death. The disease influences individuals, community, and the government due to the continuous monitoring, lifelong commitment, and the cost of treatment. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers Saudi Arabia as one of the top 10 countries in diabetes prevalence across the world. Since most of its medical services are provided by the government, the cost of the treatment in terms of hospitals and clinical visits and lab tests represents a real burden due to the large scale of the disease. The ability to predict the diabetic status of a patient with only a handful of features can allow cost-effective, rapid, and widely-available screening of diabetes, thereby lessening the health and economic burden caused by diabetes alone. The goal of this paper is to investigate the prediction of diabetic patients and compare the role of HbA1c and FPG as input features. By using five different machine learning classifiers, and using feature elimination through feature permutation and hierarchical clustering, we established good performance for accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score of the models on the dataset implying that our data or features are not bound to specific models. In addition, the consistent performance across all the evaluation metrics indicate that there was no trade-off or penalty among the evaluation metrics. Further analysis was performed on the data to identify the risk factors and their indirect impact on diabetes classification. Our analysis presented great agreement with the risk factors of diabetes and prediabetes stated by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and other health institutions worldwide. We conclude that by performing analysis of the disease using selected features, important factors specific to the Saudi population can be identified, whose management can result in controlling the disease. We also provide some recommendations learned from this research.

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Beliefs and the Correlation with Protection Health Behaviors Covid-19: A Systematic Review

Jurnal Keperawatan ◽

10.32583/keperawatan.v13i3.1388 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 605-614

Author(s):

Maulin Halimatunnisa' ◽

Pudji Lestari ◽

Elida Ulfiana

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Health Workers ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Protective Behavior ◽

Protective Behaviors ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Main Research ◽

The Government ◽

English Articles ◽

Improve Health

COVID-19 (coronavirus-19 disease) has been a problem in various countries over the past year and has generated multiple beliefs that impact protective behavior. This study aims to identify belief and the correlation with protective behavior COVID-19. Five databases namely Scopus, Ebsco, Sage,PubMed, and ProQuest were used to find published articles from 2020 to 2021. Boolean searches use "belief", "protective behavior" and "COVID-19" in the title, abstract, or keywords. Inclusion criteria were original articles in English; articles describe about beliefs and protective behavior COVID-19; sources from journals; and is available in full text. This systematic review uses the PRISMA guidelines. We identified 537 articles, of which 15 were considered relevant for this systematic review. The main research design for these 15 journals was a cross-sectional study. This study shows that perceptions of vulnerability and severity, as well as fear, influence protective behavior against COVID-19. Beliefs about COVID-19 influence the adoption of public protective behaviors against infection. Based on the results found, it can be concluded that beliefs is related to the adoption of protective behavior for COVID-19. The results of this study can become the basis for the government and health workers to improve risk communication strategies through public belief in COVID-19 to improve health protection behavior.

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Predictors of the COVID-19 Social Distancing Practice among Undergraduate Health Students in Samarinda City, Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Kesmas National Public Health Journal ◽

10.21109/kesmas.v16i4.5072 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Siti Hadijah Aspan ◽

Pramon Viwattanakulvanid

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Online Survey ◽

Target Population ◽

World Health ◽

Survey Study ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Social Distancing ◽

The Government

Social distancing is a health protocol recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for reducing the spread of COVID-19. Undergraduate health students play an important role in the dissemination of accurate information. This study identified predictors that influenced the COVID-19 social distancing practice and examined the sources of social distancing information among undergraduate health students in Samarinda City, Indonesia. This cross-sectional online survey study (March-April 2021) to involved 422 undergraduate students from medicine, public health, and pharmacy faculties at Mulawarman University. Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify factors associated with the COVID-19 social distancing practice. The results showed that age (AOR 1.47; 95% CI 1.97–2.22, p = 0.045), sex (AOR 2.26; 95% CI 1.38–3.69, p=0.001), and attitude (AOR 2.61, 95% CI: 1.75, 3.90, p<0.001) were significantly associated with social distancing practices. The top three sources of COVID-19 social distancing information used were social media (80.6%), websites (14.0%), and television (3.8%). The study findings encourage the government to disseminate more health information on social media and education programs to this target population.

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Factors influencing the protective behavior of individuals during COVID-19: a transnational survey

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-01239-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chia-Chun Tang ◽

Hsi Chen ◽

Wei-Wen Wu

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Associated Factors ◽

Online Survey ◽

Demographic Variables ◽

Protective Behavior ◽

Protective Behaviors ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

High Level ◽

Almost All ◽

Independent Behaviors

AbstractTo slow the spread of infectious disease, it is crucial to understand the engagement of protective behavior among individuals. The purpose of this study was to systematically examine individuals’ protective behaviors and the associated factors across countries during COVID-19. This causal-comparative study used a self-developed online survey to assess individuals’ level of engagement with six protective behaviors. Analysis of variance and McNemar’s test were employed for data analysis. Three hundred and eighty-four responses were analyzed. The majority of participants lived in three areas: Taiwan, Japan, and North America. Overall, the participants reported a high level of engagement in protective behaviors. However, engagement levels varied according to several demographic variables. Hand hygiene and cleaning/ventilation are two independent behaviors that differ from almost all other protective behaviors. There is a need to target the population at risk, which demonstrates low compliance. Different strategies are needed to promote specific protective behaviors.

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PROTECTIVE BEHAVIOR AGAINST COVID-19 AMONG VIETNAMESE PEOPLE IN THE SOCIAL DISTANCING CAMPAIGN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

10.31219/osf.io/4jqbc ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hoan Luong Cu Si

Keyword(s):

Online Survey ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Protective Behavior ◽

Protective Behaviors ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Precautionary Measures ◽

Gender Knowledge

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The trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic and handwashing adherence: findings from 14 countries

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11822-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Zofia Szczuka ◽

Charles Abraham ◽

Adriana Baban ◽

Sydney Brooks ◽

Sabrina Cipolletta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Regression Models ◽

Online Survey ◽

World Health ◽

Outcome Variable ◽

Future Research ◽

Protective Behaviors ◽

Multilevel Regression ◽

Individual Level ◽

Country Level ◽

Country Specific

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s engagement in health behaviors, especially those that protect individuals from SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as handwashing/sanitizing. This study investigated whether adherence to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) handwashing guidelines (the outcome variable) was associated with the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, as measured by the following 6 indicators: (i) the number of new cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality (a country-level mean calculated for the 14 days prior to data collection), (ii) total cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality accumulated since the onset of the pandemic, and (iii) changes in recent cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality (a difference between country-level COVID-19 morbidity/mortality in the previous 14 days compared to cases recorded 14–28 days earlier). Methods The observational study (#NCT04367337) enrolled 6064 adults residing in Australia, Canada, China, France, Gambia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, and Switzerland. Data on handwashing adherence across 8 situations (indicated in the WHO guidelines) were collected via an online survey (March–July 2020). Individual-level handwashing data were matched with the date- and country-specific values of the 6 indices of the trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic, obtained from the WHO daily reports. Results Multilevel regression models indicated a negative association between both accumulation of the total cases of COVID-19 morbidity (B = −.041, SE = .013, p = .013) and mortality (B = −.036, SE = .014 p = .002) and handwashing. Higher levels of total COVID-related morbidity and mortality were related to lower handwashing adherence. However, increases in recent cases of COVID-19 morbidity (B = .014, SE = .007, p = .035) and mortality (B = .022, SE = .009, p = .015) were associated with higher levels of handwashing adherence. Analyses controlled for participants’ COVID-19-related situation (their exposure to information about handwashing, being a healthcare professional), sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, marital status), and country-level variables (strictness of containment and health policies, human development index). The models explained 14–20% of the variance in handwashing adherence. Conclusions To better explain levels of protective behaviors such as handwashing, future research should account for indicators of the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trial registration Clinical Trials.Gov, #NCT04367337

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Age Differences in Preferences for Fear-Enhancing Versus Fear-Reducing News in a Global Pandemic

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3417 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 932-932

Author(s):

Anthony Villalba ◽

Jennifer Stanley ◽

Jennifer Turner ◽

Michael Vale

Keyword(s):

Age Differences ◽

Online Survey ◽

Research Question ◽

Age Groups ◽

The United States ◽

Negative Information ◽

Health Concern ◽

News Article ◽

Protective Behavior ◽

Protective Behaviors

Abstract Older adults (OA) prefer positive over negative information in a lab setting, compared to young adults (i.e., positivity effects; YA). The extent to which OA avoid negative events or information relevant for their health and safety is not clear. We first investigated age differences in preferences for fear-enhancing versus fear-reducing news articles during the Ebola Outbreak of 2014. We built upon this pilot study to further investigate this research question during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, 164 YA (18-30 years) and 171 OA (60-80 years) responded to an online survey about their preferences, feelings, and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic across 13-days during the initial peak of the pandemic in the United States. Both YA and OA preferred to read positive over negative news about the coronavirus, but OA were even more likely than YA to prefer the positive news article. No age differences in the fear of contraction were found, but OA engaged in more health-protective behaviors compared to YA. Additionally, media engagement was related to fear for both age groups, with social media engagement, specifically, emerging as a key moderating factor for protective behavior change. Although OA may not fear or seek out negative information related to a health concern; they still engage in more protective health behaviors compared to YA. In this study, positivity effects are shown to exist within a health-related event, but OA appeared to still attend to enough negative information about COVID-19 to avoid impairing their health protective behaviors.

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Revelation of Children and Adult’s Food Allergen in Malaysia

10.20944/preprints201907.0122.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Norrina Din ◽

Basri Rashid ◽

Kamal Izzuwan Ramli ◽

Nur Aliah Mansor ◽

Dahlan Abdullah

Keyword(s):

Food Allergy ◽

Food Allergen ◽

Online Survey ◽

World Health Organisation ◽

World Health ◽

Food Allergens ◽

Food Ingredient ◽

Menu Planning ◽

Seafood Products ◽

The Government

Food allergy has been recognised by the World Health Organisation as a chronic disease that could lead to fatality. The symptoms can mediate from mild to severe consequences. Some cases have reported that food allergy sufferers are bullied and are discriminated at workplace, thus increasing their stress level, apart from facing difficulty in consuming certain food due to allergy. This has an adverse effect on the quality of life amongst food allergy sufferers. Medical bills are increased when food allergy sufferers become unknowingly exposed to food allergen. Hence, this study investigated food allergens among food allergy sufferers in order to make their lives better. A total of 250 respondents participated in an online survey. Surprisingly, apart from chicken, soybean and other food allergens that have been listed under the Big Eight Allergens, the respondents mentioned some fruits that could trigger allergic reactions, such as rambutans and watermelons. Food allergy sufferers can be allergic to seafood and seafood products as well, such as shrimp paste or locally known as belacan, which refers to fermented shrimp paste cured under the sun. It is a common food ingredient used among Malaysians. The study findings offer practical insights, such as avoidance of food allergens amidst food allergy sufferers and help the government to carefully manage for menu planning. The knowledge contribution of this study reveals several specific food and fruits, as aforementioned, which appear to be common and nutritious food, yet harmful to food allergy sufferers.

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