Perceptions of the adult US population regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak
Perceptions of the adult US population regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0231808
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发表时间：
2020-04-17
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Omer, Saad B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
McFadden, SarahAnn M.;Malik, Amyn A.;Omer, Saad B.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）疫情正在全球蔓延。尽管COVID-19现已被宣布为大流行病，且美国目前的感染风险较高，但在进行调查时，美国的感染风险较低。必须了解公众对风险的看法和对信息来源的信任，以便更好地宣传公共卫生信息。在这项研究中，我们调查了美国成年人，以了解他们对COVID-19爆发的风险认知。我们于2020年2月初使用一个在线平台，使用我们开发的问卷调查了718名美国成年人。我们的样本在年龄、性别、种族、民族和教育方面与美国普通成年人相当相似。我们发现，69%的受访者希望科学/公共卫生领导层（CDC主任或NIH主任）领导美国应对COVID-19疫情，而14%的人希望政治领导层（总统或国会）领导应对。风险认知较低（中位数得分为5分，满分为10分），受访者信任卫生专业人员和卫生官员提供的COVID-19信息。大多数受访者赞成采取严格的感染预防政策来控制疫情。鉴于我们的研究结果，公共卫生/科学领导层应该站在COVID-19应对的最前沿，以促进信任。
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is spreading globally. Although COVID-19 has now been declared a pandemic and risk for infection in the United States (US) is currently high, at the time of survey administration the risk of infection in the US was low. It is important to understand the public perception of risk and trust in sources of information to better inform public health messaging. In this study, we surveyed the adult US population to understand their risk perceptions about the COVID-19 outbreak. We used an online platform to survey 718 adults in the US in early February 2020 using a questionnaire that we developed. Our sample was fairly similar to the general adult US population in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity and education. We found that 69% of the respondents wanted the scientific/public health leadership (either the CDC Director or NIH Director) to lead the US response to COVID-19 outbreak as compared to 14% who wanted the political leadership (either the president or Congress) to lead the response. Risk perception was low (median score of 5 out of 10) with the respondents trusting health professionals and health officials for information on COVID-19. The majority of respondents were in favor of strict infection prevention policies to control the outbreak. Given our results, the public health/scientific leadership should be at the forefront of the COVID-19 response to promote trust.