Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Institute of Health and Society, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Sep 28;18(19):10200. doi: 10.3390/ijerph181910200.
To reduce the spread of COVID-19 among the population, Belgium has implemented various infection prevention and control measures over time. This study investigated the extent to which understanding of the COVID-19 measures contributed to adherence, and which personal characteristics were considered risk factors for lower adherence. It consisted of a large online survey among a sample of the population ( = 2008), representative of citizens of Belgium in terms of gender, age, province and socio-economic status. The survey was conducted in September 2020, and included questions on perceived and actual understanding of COVID-19 protective measures in place during that time, as well as past and future adherence to those measures. The results showed that both perceived and actual understanding contributed significantly to past as well as future adherence. Risk factors for perceived understanding included being male and belonging to a younger age group, while risk factors for actual understanding were speaking French (versus Dutch) and belonging to a lower socio-economic level. Communication about COVID-19 measures should put more focus on trying to improve the understanding of the measures, instead of only making them known, particularly for those who are less health literate and as such at risk of poor understanding.
为了减少 COVID-19 在人群中的传播，比利时随着时间的推移实施了各种感染预防和控制措施。本研究调查了对 COVID-19 措施的理解在多大程度上有助于遵守，以及哪些个人特征被认为是低遵守率的风险因素。它由一项针对代表性人口样本（=2008）的大型在线调查组成，在性别、年龄、省份和社会经济地位方面代表了比利时公民。该调查于 2020 年 9 月进行，包括对当时实施的 COVID-19 保护措施的感知和实际理解，以及过去和未来对这些措施的遵守情况的问题。结果表明，感知和实际理解都对过去和未来的遵守情况有显著贡献。感知理解的风险因素包括男性和年轻人群体，而实际理解的风险因素则是说法语（而非荷兰语）和社会经济水平较低。关于 COVID-19 措施的沟通应该更加注重努力提高对这些措施的理解，而不仅仅是让人们了解这些措施，特别是对于那些健康素养较低的人，因为他们理解能力较差，风险较高。
