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Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is associated with elevated rates of anxiety and relatively lower compliance with public health guidelines in younger adults. To develop strategies for reducing anxiety and increasing adherence with health guidelines, it is important to understand the factors...

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Autores principales: Imbriano, Gabriella, Larsen, Emmett M., Mackin, Daniel M., An, Akaisha Kaixuan, Luhmann, Christian C., Mohanty, Aprajita, Jin, Jingwen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8039118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33855007
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.612725
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author Imbriano, Gabriella
Larsen, Emmett M.
Mackin, Daniel M.
An, Akaisha Kaixuan
Luhmann, Christian C.
Mohanty, Aprajita
Jin, Jingwen
author_facet Imbriano, Gabriella
Larsen, Emmett M.
Mackin, Daniel M.
An, Akaisha Kaixuan
Luhmann, Christian C.
Mohanty, Aprajita
Jin, Jingwen
author_sort Imbriano, Gabriella
collection PubMed
description The novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is associated with elevated rates of anxiety and relatively lower compliance with public health guidelines in younger adults. To develop strategies for reducing anxiety and increasing adherence with health guidelines, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to anxiety and health compliance in the context of COVID-19. Earlier research has shown that greater perceived risk of negative events and their costs are associated with increased anxiety and compliance with health behaviors, but it is unclear what role they play in a novel pandemic surrounded by uncertainty. In the present study we measured (1) perceived risk as the self-reported probability of being infected and experiencing serious symptoms due to COVID-19 and (2) perceived cost as financial, real-world, physical, social, and emotional consequences of being infected with COVID-19. Worry was assessed using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PWSQ) and health compliance was measured as endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO) health directives for COVID-19. Our results showed that greater perceived risk and costs of contracting the COVID-19 virus were associated with greater worry and while only costs were associated with greater compliance with health behaviors. Neither self-reported worry nor its interaction with cost estimates was associated with increased engagement in health behaviors. Our results provide important insight into decision making mechanisms involved in both increased anxiety and health compliance in COVID-19 and have implications for developing psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic strategies to target both domains.
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spelling pubmed-80391182021-04-13 Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults Imbriano, Gabriella Larsen, Emmett M. Mackin, Daniel M. An, Akaisha Kaixuan Luhmann, Christian C. Mohanty, Aprajita Jin, Jingwen Front Public Health Public Health The novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is associated with elevated rates of anxiety and relatively lower compliance with public health guidelines in younger adults. To develop strategies for reducing anxiety and increasing adherence with health guidelines, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to anxiety and health compliance in the context of COVID-19. Earlier research has shown that greater perceived risk of negative events and their costs are associated with increased anxiety and compliance with health behaviors, but it is unclear what role they play in a novel pandemic surrounded by uncertainty. In the present study we measured (1) perceived risk as the self-reported probability of being infected and experiencing serious symptoms due to COVID-19 and (2) perceived cost as financial, real-world, physical, social, and emotional consequences of being infected with COVID-19. Worry was assessed using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PWSQ) and health compliance was measured as endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO) health directives for COVID-19. Our results showed that greater perceived risk and costs of contracting the COVID-19 virus were associated with greater worry and while only costs were associated with greater compliance with health behaviors. Neither self-reported worry nor its interaction with cost estimates was associated with increased engagement in health behaviors. Our results provide important insight into decision making mechanisms involved in both increased anxiety and health compliance in COVID-19 and have implications for developing psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic strategies to target both domains. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8039118/ /pubmed/33855007 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.612725 Text en Copyright © 2021 Imbriano, Larsen, Mackin, An, Luhmann, Mohanty and Jin. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Imbriano, Gabriella
Larsen, Emmett M.
Mackin, Daniel M.
An, Akaisha Kaixuan
Luhmann, Christian C.
Mohanty, Aprajita
Jin, Jingwen
Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults
title Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults
title_full Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults
title_fullStr Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults
title_full_unstemmed Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults
title_short Online Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 Risk and Cost Estimates on Worry and Health Behavior Compliance in Young Adults
title_sort online survey of the impact of covid-19 risk and cost estimates on worry and health behavior compliance in young adults
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8039118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33855007
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.612725
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