Social media exposure, risk perception, preventive behaviors and attitudes during the COVID-19 epidemic in La Paz, Bolivia: A cross sectional study

Social media has an important role in diffusion of information, during COVID-19 pandemic it could help to promote preventive behaviors, however its role and the pathway is still unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association among social media exposure, risk perception, preventive behaviors, and attitudes toward the COVID-19 epidemic in Bolivia. METHODS: We launched an online survey in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia, during April and May 2020. The questionnaire examined: Socio-demographic factors, Social media use, Risk Perception, Preventive behaviors, attitudes and the willingness to use a vaccine if it were available in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. A logistic regression was used to evaluate factors associated with risk perception and a structural equation model (SEM) was performed to explore the pathway of the relationship among social media exposure, risk perception and preventive behaviors and attitudes. RESULTS: Among 886 participants, the most were young adults, between 18–25 years old (73.4%) and 577 (65.1%) were female. During the the week before the survey 387 (43.7%) reported be exposure to social media Covid-19 information almost always or always. Moreover 304 (34.3%) were categorized as with a high risk perception. The multivariable analyses show that being female (aOR = 1.5, CI 95% 1.1–2.1) and having high exposure to Covid-19 information on social media (aOR = 2.5, CI 95% 1.3–5.3) were associated with a higher risk perception for Covid-19. Furthermore, SEM results indicated that risk perception is associated with the adoption of preventive behaviors and attitudes (β = 0.605, p < 0.001) including the acceptance of a vaccine if one were available (β = 0.388, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Social media exposure to COVID-19 information influences the adoption of preventive attitudes and behaviors through shaping risk perception. Understanding the role of social media during the pandemic could help policymakers and communicators to develop better communication strategies that enable the population to adopt appropriate attitudes and behaviors.