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Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention
BACKGROUND: Avian influenza (AI) can be highly pathogenic and fatal. Preventive behavior such as handwashing and wearing face masks has been recommended. However, little is known about what psychosocial factors might influence people's decision to adopt such preventive behavior. This study aims...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2011
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166308/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024157 |
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author | Kuo, Pei-Chun Huang, Jiun-Hau Liu, Ming-Der |
author_facet | Kuo, Pei-Chun Huang, Jiun-Hau Liu, Ming-Der |
author_sort | Kuo, Pei-Chun |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Avian influenza (AI) can be highly pathogenic and fatal. Preventive behavior such as handwashing and wearing face masks has been recommended. However, little is known about what psychosocial factors might influence people's decision to adopt such preventive behavior. This study aims to explore risk perception and other factors associated with handwashing and wearing face masks to prevent AI. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: An interviewer-administered survey was conducted among 352 traditional market workers and shoppers in Taiwan between December 2009 and January 2010. Factors associated with the recommended AI preventive behavior (i.e., when in a traditional market, wearing a face mask and also washing hands after any contact with poultry) included: having correct knowledge about the fatality rate of AI (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.18), knowing of severe cases of AI (AOR = 2.13), being informed of local AI outbreaks (AOR = 2.24), living in northeastern Taiwan (AOR = 6.01), having a senior high-school education (AOR = 3.33), and having a university or higher education (AOR = 6.86). Gender interactive effect was also found among participants with a senior high-school education, with males being less likely to engage in the recommended AI preventive behavior than their female counterparts (AOR = 0.34). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Specific information concerning AI risk perception was associated with the recommended AI preventive behavior. In particular, having correct knowledge about the fatality rate of AI and being informed of severe cases and local outbreaks of AI were linked to increased AI preventive behavior. These findings underscore the importance of transparency in dealing with epidemic information. These results also have practical implications for prevention and policy-making to more effectively promote the recommended AI preventive behavior in the public. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3166308 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-31663082011-09-12 Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention Kuo, Pei-Chun Huang, Jiun-Hau Liu, Ming-Der PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Avian influenza (AI) can be highly pathogenic and fatal. Preventive behavior such as handwashing and wearing face masks has been recommended. However, little is known about what psychosocial factors might influence people's decision to adopt such preventive behavior. This study aims to explore risk perception and other factors associated with handwashing and wearing face masks to prevent AI. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: An interviewer-administered survey was conducted among 352 traditional market workers and shoppers in Taiwan between December 2009 and January 2010. Factors associated with the recommended AI preventive behavior (i.e., when in a traditional market, wearing a face mask and also washing hands after any contact with poultry) included: having correct knowledge about the fatality rate of AI (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.18), knowing of severe cases of AI (AOR = 2.13), being informed of local AI outbreaks (AOR = 2.24), living in northeastern Taiwan (AOR = 6.01), having a senior high-school education (AOR = 3.33), and having a university or higher education (AOR = 6.86). Gender interactive effect was also found among participants with a senior high-school education, with males being less likely to engage in the recommended AI preventive behavior than their female counterparts (AOR = 0.34). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Specific information concerning AI risk perception was associated with the recommended AI preventive behavior. In particular, having correct knowledge about the fatality rate of AI and being informed of severe cases and local outbreaks of AI were linked to increased AI preventive behavior. These findings underscore the importance of transparency in dealing with epidemic information. These results also have practical implications for prevention and policy-making to more effectively promote the recommended AI preventive behavior in the public. Public Library of Science 2011-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3166308/ /pubmed/21912667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024157 Text en Kuo et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Kuo, Pei-Chun Huang, Jiun-Hau Liu, Ming-Der Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention |
title | Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention |
title_full | Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention |
title_fullStr | Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention |
title_full_unstemmed | Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention |
title_short | Avian Influenza Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior among Traditional Market Workers and Shoppers in Taiwan: Practical Implications for Prevention |
title_sort | avian influenza risk perception and preventive behavior among traditional market workers and shoppers in taiwan: practical implications for prevention |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166308/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024157 |
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