Dataset Information

Older adults' perceptions of government handling of COVID-19: Predictors of protective behaviors from lockdown to post-lockdown.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Distrust, and more broadly, public perception of government's handling of a crisis, has been a widely studied topic within health crisis research and suggests that these perceptions are significantly associated with the behavior of its citizens.

Purpose

To understand which aspects of the public's perception of government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted engagement of protective behaviors among older adults, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.

Methods

Participants were recruited from an ongoing biopsychosocial study on aging amongst community-dwelling older adults. There were two rounds of data collection, during the national lockdown and post-lockdown. The average length of follow-up was 5.88 months. N = 421 completed the first round of data collection and N = 318 subsequently completed the second round of questionnaires.

Results

During the lockdown, perceptions that pandemic-related measures in place were sufficient, effective, timely, provided a sense of safety, important information was easily accessible, and government handling of the pandemic could be trusted, were found to significantly predict engagement in protective behaviors. During post-lockdown, only perceptions that measures in place were sufficient, provided a sense of safety, and important information was easily accessible, remained significant predictors. The perception that COVID-19 measures were clear and easy to understand now became a significant predictor.

Conclusions

Public perceptions of government handling of the pandemic predicted engagement in protective behaviors but were less important during post-lockdown. To effectively engage older adults in protective behavior, our findings suggest for pandemic-related information to be accessible, introducing timely safety measures, and having easy-to-understand instructions for nuanced measures.

SUBMITTER: Kiah Hui Siew S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8809562 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Older adults' perceptions of government handling of COVID-19: Predictors of protective behaviors from lockdown to post-lockdown.

Kiah Hui Siew Savannah S Chia Jonathan Louis JL Mahendran Rathi R Yu Junhong J

PloS one 20220202 2

<h4>Background</h4>Distrust, and more broadly, public perception of government's handling of a crisis, has been a widely studied topic within health crisis research and suggests that these perceptions are significantly associated with the behavior of its citizens.<h4>Purpose</h4>To understand which aspects of the public's perception of government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted engagement of protective behaviors among older adults, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.<h4>Methods< ...[more]

PMID: 35108322

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Project description:ImportanceFinancial fraud and scams targeting older adults are on the rise and pose serious public health and economic threats. Research on the vulnerability of older adults to fraud and scams relies almost exclusively on self-reported data, which have several intrinsic limitations. Thus, how older adults truly respond to fraud attempts remains unclear.ObjectiveTo explore the vulnerability of older adults to a US government impersonation scam.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional study, conducted from October to December 2021 among communities in the greater Chicago metropolitan area, was framed as a fictitious government agency reaching out to older adults about a potential compromise of personal information relevant to their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Participants were older adults participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing cohort study of chronic conditions of aging. Data analysis was performed from February to August 2023.ExposuresParticipants were exposed to deceptive materials through mailers, emails, and phone calls by a live agent.Main outcomes and measuresBased on the phone call data, participants were classified into 3 groups: no engagement (participants who did not answer the phone or call in), engagement (those who answered or called in but were skeptical about the legitimacy of the outreach and did not give away personal information), and conversion (participants who answered or called in without skepticism, or confirmed that they did not change their personal information, or provided the last 4 digits of their Social Security number).ResultsA total of 644 older adults (501 [77.8%] female, 143 [22.2%] male), with a mean (SD) age of 85.6 (7.5) years, were included. A total of 441 (68.5%) participants did not engage, 97 (15.1%) engaged but raised skepticism, and 106 (16.4%) converted. Older adults who engaged but with skepticism had the highest cognition and financial literacy, while those in the conversion group had the lowest scam awareness. No differences were observed in psychological and other behavioral measures by the levels of engagement.Conclusions and relevanceIn this cross-sectional study using a behavioral experiment that mimicked a real-world imposter scam, a sizable number of older adults engaged without skepticism. Results suggest that many older adults, including those without cognitive impairment, are vulnerable to fraud and scams.

Dataset Information

Older adults' perceptions of government handling of COVID-19: Predictors of protective behaviors from lockdown to post-lockdown.

Background

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Older adults' perceptions of government handling of COVID-19: Predictors of protective behaviors from lockdown to post-lockdown.

Similar Datasets

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