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Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study

BACKGROUND: Over the past years, Q fever has become a major public health problem in the Netherlands, with a peak of 2,357 human cases in 2009. In the first instance, Q fever was mainly a local problem of one province with a high density of large dairy goat farms, but in 2009 an alarming increase of...

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Autores principales: Bults, Marloes, Beaujean, Desirée, Wijkmans, Clementine, Richardus, Jan Hendrik, Voeten, Hélène
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4108011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24645896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-263
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author Bults, Marloes
Beaujean, Desirée
Wijkmans, Clementine
Richardus, Jan Hendrik
Voeten, Hélène
author_facet Bults, Marloes
Beaujean, Desirée
Wijkmans, Clementine
Richardus, Jan Hendrik
Voeten, Hélène
author_sort Bults, Marloes
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Over the past years, Q fever has become a major public health problem in the Netherlands, with a peak of 2,357 human cases in 2009. In the first instance, Q fever was mainly a local problem of one province with a high density of large dairy goat farms, but in 2009 an alarming increase of Q fever cases was observed in adjacent provinces. The aim of this study was to identify trends over time and regional differences in public perceptions and behaviors, as well as predictors of preventive behavior regarding Q fever. METHODS: One cross-sectional survey (2009) and two follow-up surveys (2010, 2012) were performed. Adults, aged ≥18 years, that participated in a representative internet panel were invited (survey 1, n = 1347; survey 2, n = 1249; survey 3, n = 1030). RESULTS: Overall, public perceptions and behaviors regarding Q fever were consistent with the trends over time in the numbers of new human Q fever cases in different epidemiological regions and the amount of media attention focused on Q fever in the Netherlands. However, there were remarkably low levels of perceived vulnerability and perceived anxiety, particularly in the region of highest incidence, where three-quarters of the total cases occurred in 2009. Predictors of preventive behavior were being female, older aged, having Q fever themselves or someone in their household, more knowledge, and higher levels of perceived severity, anxiety and (self-) efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: During future outbreaks of (zoonotic) infectious diseases, it will be important to instil a realistic sense of vulnerability by providing the public with accurate information on the risk of becoming infected. This should be given in addition to information about the severity of the disease, the efficacy of measures, and instructions for minimising infection risk with appropriate, feasible preventative measures. Furthermore, public information should be adapted to regional circumstances.
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spelling pubmed-41080112014-07-24 Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study Bults, Marloes Beaujean, Desirée Wijkmans, Clementine Richardus, Jan Hendrik Voeten, Hélène BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Over the past years, Q fever has become a major public health problem in the Netherlands, with a peak of 2,357 human cases in 2009. In the first instance, Q fever was mainly a local problem of one province with a high density of large dairy goat farms, but in 2009 an alarming increase of Q fever cases was observed in adjacent provinces. The aim of this study was to identify trends over time and regional differences in public perceptions and behaviors, as well as predictors of preventive behavior regarding Q fever. METHODS: One cross-sectional survey (2009) and two follow-up surveys (2010, 2012) were performed. Adults, aged ≥18 years, that participated in a representative internet panel were invited (survey 1, n = 1347; survey 2, n = 1249; survey 3, n = 1030). RESULTS: Overall, public perceptions and behaviors regarding Q fever were consistent with the trends over time in the numbers of new human Q fever cases in different epidemiological regions and the amount of media attention focused on Q fever in the Netherlands. However, there were remarkably low levels of perceived vulnerability and perceived anxiety, particularly in the region of highest incidence, where three-quarters of the total cases occurred in 2009. Predictors of preventive behavior were being female, older aged, having Q fever themselves or someone in their household, more knowledge, and higher levels of perceived severity, anxiety and (self-) efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: During future outbreaks of (zoonotic) infectious diseases, it will be important to instil a realistic sense of vulnerability by providing the public with accurate information on the risk of becoming infected. This should be given in addition to information about the severity of the disease, the efficacy of measures, and instructions for minimising infection risk with appropriate, feasible preventative measures. Furthermore, public information should be adapted to regional circumstances. BioMed Central 2014-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4108011/ /pubmed/24645896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-263 Text en Copyright © 2014 Bults et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bults, Marloes
Beaujean, Desirée
Wijkmans, Clementine
Richardus, Jan Hendrik
Voeten, Hélène
Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
title Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
title_full Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
title_fullStr Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
title_full_unstemmed Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
title_short Q fever in the Netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
title_sort q fever in the netherlands: public perceptions and behavioral responses in three different epidemiological regions: a follow-up study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4108011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24645896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-263
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