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Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control

Singapore, a highly urbanized Asian tropical country that experiences periodic dengue outbreaks, is piloting field releases of male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the aim of suppressing urban populations of the primary dengue vector Aedes aegypti. This study proposes and assesses a...

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Autores principales: Lwin, May O., Ong, Zoe, Panchapakesan, Chitra, Sheldenkar, Anita, Soh, Li Ting, Chen, Irene, Li, Xiaoxi, Niah, Weixin, Vasquez, Kathryn, Sim, Shuzhen, Ng, Lee-Ching
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9651544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36367848
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010910
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author Lwin, May O.
Ong, Zoe
Panchapakesan, Chitra
Sheldenkar, Anita
Soh, Li Ting
Chen, Irene
Li, Xiaoxi
Niah, Weixin
Vasquez, Kathryn
Sim, Shuzhen
Ng, Lee-Ching
author_facet Lwin, May O.
Ong, Zoe
Panchapakesan, Chitra
Sheldenkar, Anita
Soh, Li Ting
Chen, Irene
Li, Xiaoxi
Niah, Weixin
Vasquez, Kathryn
Sim, Shuzhen
Ng, Lee-Ching
author_sort Lwin, May O.
collection PubMed
description Singapore, a highly urbanized Asian tropical country that experiences periodic dengue outbreaks, is piloting field releases of male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the aim of suppressing urban populations of the primary dengue vector Aedes aegypti. This study proposes and assesses a model to explain the roles of hesitancy and receptivity towards Project Wolbachia–Singapore in influencing reactive mosquito prevention behaviors (reactive behaviors) towards the release of Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for residents living in the release sites. Interestingly, both hesitancy and receptivity predicted greater instances of reactive behaviors. The model also examines the roles of general knowledge about Wolbachia technology, perceived severity of mosquito bites, perceived density of mosquitoes, and social responsibility as predictors of hesitancy, receptivity, and reactive behaviors towards the release of Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes. Hesitancy towards the project mediated the effects of general knowledge, perceived severity of mosquito bites, and perceived density of mosquitoes on reactive behaviors towards the releases, although receptivity towards the project did not. Having less knowledge about Project Wolbachia–Singapore was associated with higher hesitancy towards the project and higher likelihood of performing reactive behaviors towards the releases. Individuals who perceive mosquito bites to be more severe and think that there are more mosquitoes in their living environments were also more likely to be hesitant about the project and practice reactive behaviors. However, both hesitancy and receptivity towards the project mediated the effect of social responsibility on reactive behaviors. Receptivity towards the project was driven by social responsibility, which was also associated with reduced hesitancy towards the project. Our findings suggest that, to address the hesitancy reported by a minority of participants, future outreach efforts should focus on strengthening the public’s sense of social responsibility and on tailored education campaigns targeting groups with low levels of knowledge of the project.
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spelling pubmed-96515442022-11-15 Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control Lwin, May O. Ong, Zoe Panchapakesan, Chitra Sheldenkar, Anita Soh, Li Ting Chen, Irene Li, Xiaoxi Niah, Weixin Vasquez, Kathryn Sim, Shuzhen Ng, Lee-Ching PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article Singapore, a highly urbanized Asian tropical country that experiences periodic dengue outbreaks, is piloting field releases of male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the aim of suppressing urban populations of the primary dengue vector Aedes aegypti. This study proposes and assesses a model to explain the roles of hesitancy and receptivity towards Project Wolbachia–Singapore in influencing reactive mosquito prevention behaviors (reactive behaviors) towards the release of Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for residents living in the release sites. Interestingly, both hesitancy and receptivity predicted greater instances of reactive behaviors. The model also examines the roles of general knowledge about Wolbachia technology, perceived severity of mosquito bites, perceived density of mosquitoes, and social responsibility as predictors of hesitancy, receptivity, and reactive behaviors towards the release of Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes. Hesitancy towards the project mediated the effects of general knowledge, perceived severity of mosquito bites, and perceived density of mosquitoes on reactive behaviors towards the releases, although receptivity towards the project did not. Having less knowledge about Project Wolbachia–Singapore was associated with higher hesitancy towards the project and higher likelihood of performing reactive behaviors towards the releases. Individuals who perceive mosquito bites to be more severe and think that there are more mosquitoes in their living environments were also more likely to be hesitant about the project and practice reactive behaviors. However, both hesitancy and receptivity towards the project mediated the effect of social responsibility on reactive behaviors. Receptivity towards the project was driven by social responsibility, which was also associated with reduced hesitancy towards the project. Our findings suggest that, to address the hesitancy reported by a minority of participants, future outreach efforts should focus on strengthening the public’s sense of social responsibility and on tailored education campaigns targeting groups with low levels of knowledge of the project. Public Library of Science 2022-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9651544/ /pubmed/36367848 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010910 Text en © 2022 Lwin et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lwin, May O.
Ong, Zoe
Panchapakesan, Chitra
Sheldenkar, Anita
Soh, Li Ting
Chen, Irene
Li, Xiaoxi
Niah, Weixin
Vasquez, Kathryn
Sim, Shuzhen
Ng, Lee-Ching
Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
title Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
title_full Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
title_fullStr Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
title_full_unstemmed Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
title_short Influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
title_sort influence of public hesitancy and receptivity on reactive behaviours towards releases of male wolbachia-aedes mosquitoes for dengue control
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9651544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36367848
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010910
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