Department of Economics, National Chi-Nan University, 1 University Rd., Puli, Nantou Hsien 545, Taiwan, ROC.
Addict Behav. 2013 Nov;38(11):2714-7. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.07.001. Epub 2013 Jul 15.
In this study, we provided an empirical examination of the interaction between people's health risk perception and betel chewing. We hypothesized that a better knowledge of possible health risks would reduce both the number of individuals who currently chew betel and the likelihood of those who do not yet chew betel to begin the habit. We constructed a simultaneous equation model with Bayesian two-stage approach to control the endogeneity between betel chewing and risk perception. Using a national survey of 26,684 observations in Taiwan, our study results indicated that better health knowledge reduced the possibility that people would become betel chewers. We also found that, in general, betel chewers have a poorer health risk perception than other population. Overall, the empirical evidence suggested that health authorities could reduce the odds of people becoming betel chewers by improving their knowledge of betel-chewing's harmful effects.
在这项研究中，我们对人们的健康风险感知与嚼槟榔之间的相互作用进行了实证检验。我们假设，对可能存在的健康风险有更好的了解，将减少当前嚼槟榔的人数，以及那些尚未开始嚼槟榔的人开始嚼槟榔的可能性。我们构建了一个联立方程模型，并采用贝叶斯两阶段方法来控制嚼槟榔和风险感知之间的内生性。利用台湾一项针对 26684 个观察样本的全国性调查，我们的研究结果表明，更好的健康知识降低了人们成为嚼槟榔者的可能性。我们还发现，一般来说，嚼槟榔者比其他人群对健康风险的感知更差。总的来说，实证证据表明，卫生当局可以通过提高人们对嚼槟榔危害的认识，降低人们成为嚼槟榔者的几率。
