Predicting the Lay Preventive Strategies in Response to Avian Influenza from Perceptions of the Threat

BACKGROUND: The identification of patterns of behaviors that lay people would engage in to protect themselves from the risk of infection in the case of avian influenza outbreak, as well as the lay perceptions of the threat that underlie these risk reduction strategies. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A population-based survey (N = 1003) was conducted in 2008 to understand and describe how the French public might respond to a possible outbreak. Factor analyses highlighted three main categories of risk reduction strategies consisting of food quality assurance, food avoidance, and animal avoidance. In combination with the fear of contracting avian influenza, mental representations associated with the manifestation and/or transmission of the disease were found to significantly and systematically shape the behavioral responses to the perceived threat. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This survey provides insight into the nature and predictors of the protective patterns that might be expected from the general public during a novel domestic outbreak of avian influenza.