College of Nursing, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea.
Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, Chuncheon 24253, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 4;19(15):9620. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159620.
The great challenge to global public health caused by the coronavirus pandemic has lasted for two years in Korea. However, Korean young adults seem less compliant with preventive health behaviors than older adults. This study aims to explore the relationship between risk perception variables of optimistic bias, hypochondriasis, and mass psychology, and preventive health behavior in relation to the coronavirus pandemic through a cross-sectional online survey. The participants are 91 Korean young adults aged 19-30. The results show that mass psychology has a positive relationship with preventive health behavior, whereas optimistic bias and hypochondriasis do not. In detail, people with high or middle levels of mass psychology displayed higher preventive health behavior compared with those who had low levels of mass psychology, and the highest compliance was for wearing a mask, followed by COVID-19 vaccination, whereas the lowest compliance was for influenza vaccination. These findings could be explained by the Korean culture of strong collectivism and the characteristics of COVID-19, which evoked extreme fear globally. The results of this study can be useful for policy establishment in the ongoing prevention of COVID-19 and suggest that mass psychology should be used effectively in planning preventive communication campaigns.
新冠疫情对全球公共卫生造成了巨大挑战，在韩国已经持续了两年。然而，与老年人相比，韩国的年轻成年人似乎较少遵守预防性行为。本研究旨在通过横断面在线调查，探讨乐观偏差、疑病症和群体心理的风险感知变量与与新冠疫情相关的预防健康行为之间的关系。参与者为 91 名年龄在 19-30 岁的韩国年轻成年人。结果表明，群体心理与预防健康行为呈正相关，而乐观偏差和疑病症则没有。具体而言，与低群体心理的人相比，高或中群体心理的人表现出更高的预防健康行为，其中最高的依从性是戴口罩，其次是接种 COVID-19 疫苗，而最低的依从性是接种流感疫苗。这些发现可以用强烈的集体主义韩国文化和 COVID-19 的特点来解释，这在全球范围内引起了极度恐惧。本研究结果可用于正在进行的 COVID-19 预防政策制定，并表明应在规划预防传播活动时有效利用群体心理。
