Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2022 May 19;10:842368. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.842368. eCollection 2022.
COVID-19 is a threat to individual and global health, thus, reducing the disease's spread is of significant importance. However, adherence to behavioral measures against the spread of COVID-19 is not universal, even within vulnerable populations who are at higher risk of exposure to the virus or severe COVID-19 infection. Therefore, this study investigates how risk-group membership relates to adherence to COVID-19 behavioral measures, whether perceived threat of COVID-19 is a mechanism explaining this relationship, and whether knowledge about COVID-19 moderates these effects.
We conducted a web-based survey ( = 4,096) representative of the adult population in Germany with regard to gender, age (18 to 74), and province. Therein, we assessed risk group membership with two indicators (risk of exposure to COVID-19 and risk of severe COVID-19 infection), perceived COVID-19 threat with the Perceived Coronavirus Threat Questionnaire, knowledge about COVID-19 with a knowledge test; and adherence to six behavioral measures to protect against the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., keeping distance, using mouth-nose protection, and following contact restrictions). We used moderated mediation models to test whether perceived threat mediates the relationship between risk-group membership and adherence and whether knowledge about COVID-19 moderates this relationship.
We found that risk group members had more perceived COVID-19 threat and that knowledge about COVID-19 increased perceived threat. Moreover, risk group membership had a positive direct effect on adherence to most behavioral measures and risk group members with less knowledge about COVID-19 violated measures more frequently. Risk-group membership also had positive indirect effects on adherence via perceived COVID-19 threat. The moderated indirect effects of threat indicate that threat led to more adherence when knowledge was low, but lost relevance as knowledge increased.
The results may help to evaluate disease-regulation measures and to combat the pandemic more effectively. For example, increasing COVID-19 knowledge in the general population could increase adherence to COVID-19 behavioral measures. However, policy makers should be mindful that this could also have negative mental health implications as knowledge increases perceived COVID-19 threat.
COVID-19 对个人和全球健康构成威胁，因此，减少疾病传播至关重要。然而，即使在易感染人群中，也并非所有人都普遍遵守 COVID-19 传播的行为措施，这些人群面临更高的病毒暴露或严重 COVID-19 感染风险。因此，本研究旨在调查风险群体成员身份与 COVID-19 行为措施的遵守程度之间的关系，以及 COVID-19 感知威胁是否是解释这种关系的机制，同时还探讨 COVID-19 相关知识是否会调节这些影响。
我们通过网络调查（n=4096），代表了德国成年人在性别、年龄（18 至 74 岁）和省份方面的分布。我们使用两个指标评估风险群体成员身份（暴露于 COVID-19 的风险和感染严重 COVID-19 的风险）、采用感知冠状病毒威胁问卷评估 COVID-19 感知威胁、用知识测试评估 COVID-19 相关知识；并评估了六种预防 COVID-19 传播的行为措施（例如，保持距离、使用口鼻保护和遵守接触限制）的遵守情况。我们使用有调节的中介模型来检验感知威胁是否在风险群体成员身份与遵守行为之间起中介作用，以及 COVID-19 相关知识是否调节这种关系。
我们发现，风险群体成员感知到的 COVID-19 威胁更大，且 COVID-19 相关知识增加了感知威胁。此外，风险群体成员身份对大多数行为措施的遵守程度有积极的直接影响，而 COVID-19 相关知识较少的风险群体成员更频繁地违反措施。风险群体成员身份通过感知到的 COVID-19 威胁对遵守行为也有积极的间接影响。威胁的有调节的间接效应表明，当知识水平较低时，威胁会导致更多的遵守，但随着知识的增加，威胁的相关性降低。
研究结果可能有助于评估疾病防控措施，并更有效地应对大流行。例如，提高普通人群的 COVID-19 知识可以提高对 COVID-19 行为措施的遵守程度。然而，政策制定者应该注意到，随着知识的增加，感知到的 COVID-19 威胁可能会对心理健康产生负面影响。
