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School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany

With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases peaking and health systems reaching their limits in winter 2020/21, schools remained closed in many countries. To better understand teachers’ risk perception, we conducted a survey in Germany. Participants were recruited through various associations...

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Autores principales: Weinert, Stefanie, Thronicke, Anja, Hinse, Maximilian, Schad, Friedemann, Matthes, Harald
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8430488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501807
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179218
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author Weinert, Stefanie
Thronicke, Anja
Hinse, Maximilian
Schad, Friedemann
Matthes, Harald
author_facet Weinert, Stefanie
Thronicke, Anja
Hinse, Maximilian
Schad, Friedemann
Matthes, Harald
author_sort Weinert, Stefanie
collection PubMed
description With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases peaking and health systems reaching their limits in winter 2020/21, schools remained closed in many countries. To better understand teachers’ risk perception, we conducted a survey in Germany. Participants were recruited through various associations and invited to take part in a cross-sectional COVID-19-specific online survey. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Factors associated with teachers’ fears of contracting the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were evaluated with an adjusted multivariable regression analysis. The median age of the 6753 participating teachers was 43 years, and 77% were female. Most teachers worked in high schools (29%) and elementary schools (26%). The majority of participants (73%) feared contracting SARS-CoV-2 at school, while 77% intended to receive their COVID-19 vaccination. Ninety-eight percent considered students to pose the greatest risk. Female and younger teachers were significantly more anxious to get infected and teachers who opposed the re-opening of schools had significantly higher odds of being more anxious (p < 0.001). To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to describe teachers’ risk perception of COVID-19 and their attitudes towards vaccinations in a nationwide survey. The anxiety correlates with the COVID-19 protection measures demanded and appears to be a driving factor rather than rational logic.
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spelling pubmed-84304882021-09-11 School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany Weinert, Stefanie Thronicke, Anja Hinse, Maximilian Schad, Friedemann Matthes, Harald Int J Environ Res Public Health Article With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases peaking and health systems reaching their limits in winter 2020/21, schools remained closed in many countries. To better understand teachers’ risk perception, we conducted a survey in Germany. Participants were recruited through various associations and invited to take part in a cross-sectional COVID-19-specific online survey. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Factors associated with teachers’ fears of contracting the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were evaluated with an adjusted multivariable regression analysis. The median age of the 6753 participating teachers was 43 years, and 77% were female. Most teachers worked in high schools (29%) and elementary schools (26%). The majority of participants (73%) feared contracting SARS-CoV-2 at school, while 77% intended to receive their COVID-19 vaccination. Ninety-eight percent considered students to pose the greatest risk. Female and younger teachers were significantly more anxious to get infected and teachers who opposed the re-opening of schools had significantly higher odds of being more anxious (p < 0.001). To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to describe teachers’ risk perception of COVID-19 and their attitudes towards vaccinations in a nationwide survey. The anxiety correlates with the COVID-19 protection measures demanded and appears to be a driving factor rather than rational logic. MDPI 2021-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8430488/ /pubmed/34501807 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179218 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Weinert, Stefanie
Thronicke, Anja
Hinse, Maximilian
Schad, Friedemann
Matthes, Harald
School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany
title School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany
title_full School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany
title_fullStr School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany
title_full_unstemmed School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany
title_short School Teachers’ Self-Reported Fear and Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey in Germany
title_sort school teachers’ self-reported fear and risk perception during the covid-19 pandemic—a nationwide survey in germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8430488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501807
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179218
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