Lau Nathan T T, Wilkey Eric D, Soltanlou Mojtaba, Lagacé Cusiac Rebekka, Peters Lien, Tremblay Paul, Goffin Celia, Alves Isabella Starling, Ribner Andrew David, Thompson Clarissa, Van Hoof Jo, Bahnmueller Julia, Alvarez Aymee, Bellon Elien, Coolen Ilse, Ollivier Fanny, Ansari Daniel
Department of Psychology, Western University, Canada.
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Mar 16;9(3):201303. doi: 10.1098/rsos.201303. eCollection 2022 Mar.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people across the globe have been exposed to large amounts of statistical data. Previous studies have shown that individuals' mathematical understanding of health-related information affects their attitudes and behaviours. Here, we investigate the relation between (i) basic numeracy, (ii) COVID-19 health numeracy, and (iii) COVID-19 health-related attitudes and behaviours. An online survey measuring these three variables was distributed in Canada, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) ( = 2032). In line with predictions, basic numeracy was positively related to COVID-19 health numeracy. However, predictions, neither basic numeracy nor COVID-19 health numeracy was related to COVID-19 health-related attitudes and behaviours (e.g. follow experts' recommendations on social distancing, wearing masks etc.). Multi-group analysis was used to investigate mean differences and differences in the strength of the correlation across countries. Results indicate there were no between-country differences in the correlations between the main constructs but there were between-country differences in latent means. Overall, results suggest that while basic numeracy is related to one's understanding of data about COVID-19, better numeracy alone is not enough to influence a population's health-related attitudes about disease severity and to increase the likelihood of following public health advice.
在新冠疫情期间，全球各地的人们都接触到了大量的统计数据。先前的研究表明，个人对健康相关信息的数学理解会影响他们的态度和行为。在此，我们调查（i）基本算术能力、（ii）新冠健康算术能力和（iii）新冠健康相关态度与行为之间的关系。一项测量这三个变量的在线调查在加拿大、美国和英国展开（ = 2032）。与预测一致，基本算术能力与新冠健康算术能力呈正相关。然而，与预测相反，基本算术能力和新冠健康算术能力均与新冠健康相关态度和行为（例如遵循专家关于社交距离、佩戴口罩等的建议）无关。多组分析用于调查各国之间的均值差异和相关强度差异。结果表明，主要构念之间的相关性不存在国家间差异，但潜在均值存在国家间差异。总体而言，结果表明，虽然基本算术能力与个人对新冠数据的理解有关，但仅靠更好的算术能力不足以影响民众对疾病严重程度的健康相关态度，也不足以增加遵循公共卫生建议的可能性。
