Public Awareness, Individual Prevention Practice, and Psychological Effect at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Outbreak in China.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Han B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7492706 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Public Awareness, Individual Prevention Practice, and Psychological Effect at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Outbreak in China.
Han Bingfeng B Zhao Tianshuo T Liu Bei B Liu Hanyu H Zheng Hui H Wan Yongmei Y Qiu Jiayi J Zhuang Hui H Cui Fuqiang F
Journal of epidemiology 20200822 10
<h4>Background</h4>The COVID-19 has spread to more than 200 countries and territories. But less is known about the knowledge, protection behavior and anxiety regarding the outbreak among the general population.<h4>Methods</h4>A cross-sectional, population-based online survey was conducted in China and abroad from January 28 to February 1, 2020. Socio-demographic information was collected and knowledge scores, practice scores, anxiety scores and perceived risk were calculated. General linear mode ...[more]
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Project description:BackgroundCOVID-19 broke out in China and spread rapidly in January and February 2020. Following the prevention and control measures of the Chinese government, the outbreak was gradually brought under control after March. The changes in people's attention to the epidemic, individual prevention practice and psychological effect from the early outbreak stage to the under controlled stage need to be evaluated.MethodsTwo cross-sectional, population-based online surveys were conducted from January 28 to February 1, 2020 and from February1 to March 18, 2020. Socio-demographic information and individual protective practice were collected and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used for measuring anxiety. The range of STAI score was 5-25, and the higher the score, the more anxious it was. The respondents of the two surveys were matched on a one-to-one basis according to their province, gender, age, education, and marriage. Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare STAI score changes in two stages and in different demographic characteristics.ResultsWe included 9,764 individuals in the first survey and 1,669 in the second survey, covering 30 provincial administrative regions in Mainland China. COVID-19 has affected almost every aspect of people's normal life, especially lifestyle. The proportion of people who paid attention to it every day had dropped from 97.6 to 88.9%. We identified that vast majority people wore masks when they went out. The proportion has declined from 96.5 to 92.4% for hand hygiene and from 98.4 to 95.3% for not attending parties. People's anxiety (STAI score) across the country has decreased from a median of 19 in the early outbreak stage to a median of 12, including people with all demographic characteristics, but some have increased in 16 provinces.ConclusionPeople's attention to information about the epidemic has declined slightly, but a high proportion of people maintained good practices such as wearing masks, hand hygiene, and not attending parties. People's anxiety had generally declined from the early outbreak stage to the under controlled stage, but it was still at a high level.
| S-EPMC8242258 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to an urgent reorganisation of the healthcare system to prevent hospitals from overflowing and the virus from spreading. Our objective was to evaluate the socioeconomic and psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on radiologists.Material and methodsFrench radiologists were invited to answer an online survey during the pandemic through mailing lists. The questionnaire was accessible for nine days. It covered socio-demographic information, exposure to COVID-19 at work and impact on work organisation, and included the Insomnia Severity Index and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Outcomes were moderate to severe insomnia, definite symptoms of depression or anxiety. Risk and protective factors were identified through multivariate binary logistic regression.Results1515 radiologists answered the survey. Overall, 674 (44.5 %) worked in a highCOVID-19 density area, 671 (44.3 %) were women, and 809 (53.4 %) worked in private practice. Among responders, 186 (12.3 %) expressed insomnia, 222 (14.6 %) anxiety, and 189 (12.5 %) depression symptoms. Lack of protective equipment, increased teleradiology activity and negative impact on education were risk factors for insomnia (respectively OR [95 %CI]:1.7[1.1-2.7], 1.5[1.1-2.2], and 2.5[1.8-3.6]). Female gender, respiratory history, working in COVID-19 high density area, increase of COVID-19 related activity, and impacted education were risk factors for anxiety (OR[95 %CI]:1.7[1.2-2.3], 2[1.1-3.4], 1.5[1.1-2], 1.2[1-1.4], and 2.1[1.5-3]). Conversely, working in a public hospital was a protective factor against insomnia, anxiety, and depression (OR[95 %CI]:0.4[0.2-0.7], 0.6[0.4-0.9], and 0.5[0.3-0.8]).ConclusionsDuring COVID-19 pandemic, many radiologists expressed depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms. Working in a public hospital was a protective factor against every psychological symptom. Socio-economic impact was also major especially in private practice.
| S-EPMC7491419 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe recommendations of both the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) for the prevention of cancer are important public health tools. These recommendations for the prevention of specific cancers are related to body weight maintenance; physical activity; foods and drinks that promote weight gain; plant foods; foods of animal origin; alcoholic beverages; preservation, processing, and preparation of food; food supplements; and breastfeeding.MethodsThis study was a descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study. All patients provided written informed consent prior to enrollment in the study. Stratified random sampling was carried out with a convenience sample size of ≥280 participants. The characteristics of the participants were investigated using validated questions. Knowledge about the WCRF/AICR recommendations for the primary prevention of cancer was determined using 14 multiple choice questions validated in this study. Group A included participants who answered that cancer can be prevented and that lifestyle is the main factor related to the onset of cancer; the remaining participants were assigned to Group B. The χ2 test and Mann‒Whitney U test were used to determine differences in the groups. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. A multiple linear regression analysis with gamma response was performed to assess the knowledge score.ResultsA total of 289 participants were included; 168 (58%) participants were in group A, and 121 (42%) participants were in group B. Using a 0 to 14 scale, the median (P25, P75) number of correct answers was 11 (10, 12). There was no evidence of a difference between groups in sex, relationship status, literacy skills, years of education, occupation, monthly income per person, and BMI. Most of the participants reported that they did not consume tobacco (n = 259/289) or alcohol (n = 261/289) in the week prior to completing the survey.DiscussionMost of the participants (58%) considered cancer preventable and agreed that lifestyle factors were the most important factors in cancer development. The results also showed a high level of public awareness of some evidence-based associations between cancer and lifestyle factors, such as tobacco use. Some confusion among the public on other risk factors was also identified: waist circumference, a variable related to excess weight, was not identified as a risk factor for cancer by most of the participants, but the consumption of foods and beverages high in calories was identified as a risk factor by the majority of participants. Awareness of cancer protective and risk factors may lead to positive behavioral changes and eventually reduce the burden of cancer.
| S-EPMC11246616 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundFood labeling is an important public health tool allowing consumers to make informed and healthy choices. Considering how important it is for consumers to be aware of food labels while choosing healthy foods, this study aims at assessing public awareness, attitude, and practice regarding food labeling in Alexandria Governorate, Egypt.MethodsA cross sectional study using a predesigned interview questionnaire to collect data from 719 adult consumers from both sexes (28.2% males: 71.8% females), recruited from different branches of one of the largest supermarkets in Alexandria.ResultsMore than half of the participants (55.6%) reported reading food labels. The most frequently read information was production/ expiry date (76.8%), product name (68.3%), and ingredients (38.0%) while the least frequently read was nutritional facts (29.9%). More than half of the study sample (50.9%) had low awareness about the content of food labels, nevertheless, having higher scores on awareness about food labels predicted reading practice. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents had average to good food label reading practice. Most respondents (81.8%) had a favorable attitude about food labeling in its present form, however, higher attitude scores did not seem to influence their use of food labels. Being older (β = 0.045, CI; 0.014-0.076, p = 0.005), being female (β = 1.162, CI; 0.541-1.784, p = 0.000), having secondary education or equivalent (β = 1.042,CI; 0.050-2.034, p = 0.040), having university education or beyond (β = 3.090, CI; 2.132-4.048, p = 0.000), and having higher scores on awareness about food labels (β = 1.407, CI; 1.324-1.490, p = 0.000) were significant predictors of reading food labels.ConclusionsMost of the studied consumers had a positive attitude towards food labeling, however, more than half of them had low awareness of food labeling content. Nutritional facts were the least frequently read by consumers. Reading food labels was significantly predicted by having higher education, being older, being a female, and having better awareness.
| S-EPMC10797718 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:The outbreak of COVID-19 generated severe emotional reactions, and restricted mobility was a crucial measure to reduce the spread of the virus. This study describes the changes in public emotional reactions and mobility patterns in the Chinese population during the COVID-19 outbreak. METHODS:We collected data on public emotional reactions in response to the outbreak through Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, between 1st January and 31st March 2020. Using anonymized location-tracking information, we analyzed the daily mobility patterns of approximately 90% of Sichuan residents. RESULTS:There were three distinct phases of the emotional and behavioral reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak. The alarm phase (19th-26th January) was a restriction-free period, characterized by few new daily cases, but a large amount public negative emotions [the number of negative comments per Weibo post increased by 246.9 per day, 95% confidence interval (CI) 122.5-371.3], and a substantial increase in self-limiting mobility (from 45.6% to 54.5%, changing by 1.5% per day, 95% CI 0.7%-2.3%). The epidemic phase (27th January-15th February) exhibited rapidly increasing numbers of new daily cases, decreasing expression of negative emotions (a decrease of 27.3 negative comments per post per day, 95% CI -40.4 to -14.2), and a stabilized level of self-limiting mobility. The relief phase (16th February-31st March) had a steady decline in new daily cases and decreasing levels of negative emotion and self-limiting mobility. CONCLUSIONS:During the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the public's emotional reaction was strongest before the actual peak of the outbreak and declined thereafter. The change in human mobility patterns occurred before the implementation of restriction orders, suggesting a possible link between emotion and behavior.
| S-EPMC7542325 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectGP residents's has the obligation to take task with the public health prevetion. GP residents receive the public health training during their college study period and the residents training. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, highlight the importance and competence of the community prevention as the front line of epidemic prevention and control, pushing the general practitioner (GP) residents into the front team of epidemic prevention and control. Residents' participation in epidemic prevention and control is not only a field workload participation in public health disease prevention and control, but also a rare and value-oriented training experience. This study aims to explores the research on the training content, ability improvement and cognitive load of the resident, and to demonstrate past and future training effects of epidemic prevention and control.MethodsObject cognitive load scale (NASA-TLX scale) and self-developed questionnaires were adopted to conduct a questionnaire survey on resident doctors who were in GP training program from West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and finally 190 questionnaires were collected. SPSS 23.0 statistical software for statistical analysis of data.ResultMost indicators of cognitive load NASA scale are at a "moderate" level by the GP residents, generally indicating that the intensity of on-site epidemic prevention and control (training) can be tolerated. The chi-square test is used to study the status of "How responsible you are for epidemic prevention and control in a community in the future", the residents grade shows no significant difference while " how many months after the outbreak when you participated in the epidemic prevention" shows significant difference, the result show that GP residents already have konwledge and skills for the public health prevetion, they need more attitude and mental preparation. Continuing education will have a significant positive relationship with the GP residents's confidence of the prevetion ofpublic health prevetion.ConclusionFormer medical school education and training at the regulatory training stage have a good effect for residents to master the ability of epidemic prevention and control, and to prepare for the needs of epidemic prevention and control physically and mentally. After this stage, the epidemic prevention and control training under the real situation will make a great contribution to the self-assessment and performance improvement of the final general practitioners.
| S-EPMC9713135 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDementia is a global public health priority. Many modifiable factors have been shown to influence the development of dementia, but these factors are not adequately known by the general public. This study aimed to assess public awareness of the factors that are associated with dementia in China.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from May to October 2019 using an Internet-based questionnaire. Data on basic sociodemographic characteristics were collected, and the knowledge of risk and protective factors for dementia was investigated. Logistic regression analysis was performed to compare levels of the knowledge of factors associated with dementia across populations with different demographic characteristics.ResultsData from 3338 respondents were analyzed. The percentages of participants who accurately identified the risk factors of dementia were follows: 84.24% for negative affect, 65.07% for alcohol use, 56.68% for smoking, 48.74% for hypertension, and 42.66% for diabetes. The percentages of participants who accurately identified the protective factors for dementia were follows: 90.00% for exercise, 84.69% for social activity, 80.92% for intelligence games, 74.45% for reading, and 6.14% for antihypertensive or hypolipidemic drugs. The majority of Chinese people correctly recognized the role of lifestyle factors in the development of dementia but not medical factors. The levels of knowledge of the factors associated with dementia were significantly distinct across populations with different characteristics. The following sociodemographic characteristics were associated with more comprehensive knowledge of dementia risk and protective factors: women, young age, high education levels, nonmanual jobs, and contact with patients with dementia.ConclusionsPublic awareness and knowledge of risk and protective factors for dementia in China are still insufficient. More efforts are needed to publicize information to reduce the risk of dementia.
| S-EPMC7568826 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The newly discovered coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a pandemic, infecting thousands of people around the world. This study examines nurses' demographic information (age, gender, marital status, area of practice, total years of experience in the current hospital, work region, monthly salary, educational level, workplace, nationality, working hours per day, total nursing experience, and the respondents' main source of information on COVID-19), awareness, attitudes, prevention, and perceptions of COVID-19 during the outbreak in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional descriptive design of 500 nurses working at government and non-governmental hospitals in five regions in Saudi Arabia were selected using convenience sampling. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied and the Mann-Whitney test was utilized as a post hoc test. The majority of nurses in this study, 96.85%, had excellent knowledge of COVID-19. Some (83.2%) of nurses reported significant prevention knowledge and treatment skills about COVID-19, while 7.6% had little knowledge about prevention. More than half of the nurses (60.4%) had high positive attitudes toward caring for COVID-19 patients. In conclusion, female nurses, married nurses, and bachelor's degree nurses had greater awareness, better attitude, and prevention clinical experience towards COVID-19. Meanwhile, non-Saudi nurses had higher self-reported awareness, positive attitudes, optimal prevention, and positive perceptions compared to Saudi nurses. This study provides baseline information immediately needed to enable health authorities to prioritize training programs that support nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
| S-EPMC7664870 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 caused panic and psychological stress throughout the World. We investigated the extent of adverse psychological reactions in two medical staff groups in China, and explored the importance of online psychological assistance for them. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey including Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) was utilized to assess anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to match sex and age between the two groups. Differences in the prevalence of adverse psychological reactions between the two groups were compared by a Chi-square test. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was utilized to search for associated adverse psychological reaction factors of two groups. Results: A total of 2,920 medical staff took part in the survey, including 470 frontline and 2,450 non-frontline medical staff. The risk of the frontline group experiencing anxiety, depression, insomnia-early, insomnia-middle, and insomnia-late were 1.16, 1.28, 1.26, 1.22, 1.28 times those of the non-frontline group after PSM. For frontline medical staff, the spinsterhood state (OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.00-1.51; P = 0.05) was a risk factor for anxiety. Bachelor or college degree (OR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.24-4.02, P = 0.01) and a contact history with COVID-19 patients (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.10-2.40; P = 0.02) were risk factors for insomnia. For non-frontline medical staff, being a woman (OR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.08-2.06, P = 0.01) was a risk factor for anxiety, whilst being in a middle age group was a protective factor for anxiety (OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.50-0.99, P = 0.04) and depression (OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.45-0.93, P = 0.02). Being a woman (OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.14-1.89, P = 0.003) and working in a COVID-19 unit (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.11-1.54, P = 0.001) were risk factors for insomnia, whilst the spinsterhood state (OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.67-0.95; P = 0.01) was a protective factor for insomnia. Online forms of psychological aid were all popular with medical staff. Conclusions: The prevalence of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in frontline medical staff was significantly higher than in the non-frontline group. Appropriate intervention methods should be adopted according to the different influencing factors of the two groups. Online psychological aid was the preferred mechanism for relieving psychological problems.
| S-EPMC8082095 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHigh consumption of antibiotics has been identified as an important driver for the increasing antibiotic resistance, considered to be one of the greatest threats to public health globally. Simply informing the public about this consequence is insufficient to induce behavioral change. This study explored beliefs and perceptions among Swedes, with the aim of identifying factors promoting and hindering a judicious approach to antibiotics use. The study focused primarily on the medical use of antibiotics, also considering other aspects connected with antibiotic resistance, such as travelling and food consumption.MethodsData were collected through focus group discussions at the end of 2016. Twenty-three Swedes were recruited using an area-based approach and purposive sampling, aiming for as heterogeneous groups as possible regarding gender (13 women, 10 men), age (range 20-81, mean 38), and education level. Interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The Health Belief Model was used as a theoretical framework.ResultsAntibiotic resistance was identified by participants as a health threat with the potential for terrible consequences. The severity of the problem was perceived more strongly than the actual likelihood of being affected by it. Metaphors such as climate change were abundantly employed to describe antibiotic resistance as a slowly emerging problem. There was a tension between individual (egoistic) and collective (altruistic) reasons for engaging in judicious behavior. The individual effort needed and antibiotics overprescribing were considered major barriers to such behavior. In their discussions, participants stressed the need for empowerment, achieved through good health communication from authorities and family physicians.ConclusionsKnowledge about antibiotic consumption and resistance, as well as values such as altruism and trust in the health care system, has significant influence on both perceptions of individual responsibility and on behavior. This suggests that these factors should be emphasized in health education and health promotion. To instead frame antibiotic resistance as a slowly emerging disaster, risks diminish the public perception of being susceptible to it.
| S-EPMC6171135 | biostudies-literature