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Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students

People’s risk perception of COVID-19 is an important predictor for adopting protective behavior. Although risk perceptions, and factors influencing these, may vary between countries, less attention has been paid to differences between adjacent regions from neighboring countries. In the midst of the...

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Autores principales: Vromans, Ruben D., Linn, Annemiek J., Maru, Nirvi, Pabian, Sara, Krahmer, Emiel J., Guidry, Jeanine P. D., Perrin, Paul B., Bol, Nadine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9894432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36730321
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277417
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author Vromans, Ruben D.
Linn, Annemiek J.
Maru, Nirvi
Pabian, Sara
Krahmer, Emiel J.
Guidry, Jeanine P. D.
Perrin, Paul B.
Bol, Nadine
author_facet Vromans, Ruben D.
Linn, Annemiek J.
Maru, Nirvi
Pabian, Sara
Krahmer, Emiel J.
Guidry, Jeanine P. D.
Perrin, Paul B.
Bol, Nadine
author_sort Vromans, Ruben D.
collection PubMed
description People’s risk perception of COVID-19 is an important predictor for adopting protective behavior. Although risk perceptions, and factors influencing these, may vary between countries, less attention has been paid to differences between adjacent regions from neighboring countries. In the midst of the first wave of the corona outbreak (March-April-May 2020), we measured risk perceptions as perceived threat (consisting of perceived severity and susceptibility) among university students (N = 668) in two connected countries: the Netherlands and Belgium. Theory-based predictor variables included experiential, efficacy-related, socio-cultural, cognitive, and demographic factors. While demographic variables and country were not significant predictors of perceived threat level, all other constructs were. Personal and indirect experiences with COVID-19, as well as higher scores on personal (self) efficacy to carry out recommended preventive behaviors were all associated with higher perceived threat. However, low collective efficacy and lower levels of trust in government were both also significantly associated with higher perceived threat, as was a low level of “lack of COVID-19 knowledge”. These results hold implications for suitable risk communication strategies for increasing students’ COVID-19 risk perceptions.
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spelling pubmed-98944322023-02-03 Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students Vromans, Ruben D. Linn, Annemiek J. Maru, Nirvi Pabian, Sara Krahmer, Emiel J. Guidry, Jeanine P. D. Perrin, Paul B. Bol, Nadine PLoS One Research Article People’s risk perception of COVID-19 is an important predictor for adopting protective behavior. Although risk perceptions, and factors influencing these, may vary between countries, less attention has been paid to differences between adjacent regions from neighboring countries. In the midst of the first wave of the corona outbreak (March-April-May 2020), we measured risk perceptions as perceived threat (consisting of perceived severity and susceptibility) among university students (N = 668) in two connected countries: the Netherlands and Belgium. Theory-based predictor variables included experiential, efficacy-related, socio-cultural, cognitive, and demographic factors. While demographic variables and country were not significant predictors of perceived threat level, all other constructs were. Personal and indirect experiences with COVID-19, as well as higher scores on personal (self) efficacy to carry out recommended preventive behaviors were all associated with higher perceived threat. However, low collective efficacy and lower levels of trust in government were both also significantly associated with higher perceived threat, as was a low level of “lack of COVID-19 knowledge”. These results hold implications for suitable risk communication strategies for increasing students’ COVID-19 risk perceptions. Public Library of Science 2023-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9894432/ /pubmed/36730321 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277417 Text en © 2023 Vromans 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
Vromans, Ruben D.
Linn, Annemiek J.
Maru, Nirvi
Pabian, Sara
Krahmer, Emiel J.
Guidry, Jeanine P. D.
Perrin, Paul B.
Bol, Nadine
Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students
title Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students
title_full Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students
title_fullStr Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students
title_full_unstemmed Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students
title_short Predicting and comparing COVID-19 risk perceptions across the Netherlands and Belgium: A cross-sectional survey among university students
title_sort predicting and comparing covid-19 risk perceptions across the netherlands and belgium: a cross-sectional survey among university students
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9894432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36730321
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277417
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