Zhang Chenggang, Ou Pengrui, Guo Pengfei
Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Apr 24;11(9):1212. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11091212.
Local historical experience in public health emergencies has been perceived to largely affect COVID-19's social influence. Specifically, individuals' personal experience in public health emergencies would likely have an impact on their reactions to the next similar event. Herein, we combined life course and risk analysis frameworks to explore how individuals' experiences influence current risk perception and protective behaviors. We collected 1000 questionnaires of random network samples in six Chinese provinces of different risk levels from 29 April to 8 May 2020, and used the propensity score matching (PSM) model and multivariable linear regression to process the data. We categorized individual public emergency experience into three patterns: (1) having ever witnessed a public health emergency, (2) having ever experienced a public health emergency, and (3) currently experiencing a public health emergency. The study indicates that individuals' experiences had significant positive effects on protective behaviors against COVID-19. The average effects of the three patterns on behaviors were 0.371 ( < 0.001), 0.898 ( < 0.001) and 0.319 ( < 0.05), respectively. The study also shows that for those experiencing any one pattern, the effect of risk perception on protective behaviors appeared null in the early stage of the pandemic. We propose the potential interactive mechanism of risk factors in the life course at the individual level. Academically, this study develops the risk theory of perception and behavior and expands the application of the life course approach in the public health arena. Practically, our research indicates that public health emergency experiences are valuable for responding to a future pandemic and normalizing prevention policies.
当地在突发公共卫生事件中的历史经验被认为在很大程度上影响了新冠疫情的社会影响。具体而言，个人在突发公共卫生事件中的亲身经历可能会对他们对下一次类似事件的反应产生影响。在此，我们结合生命历程和风险分析框架，探讨个人经历如何影响当前的风险认知和保护行为。我们于2020年4月29日至5月8日在中国六个不同风险水平的省份收集了1000份随机网络样本问卷，并使用倾向得分匹配（PSM）模型和多变量线性回归对数据进行处理。我们将个人突发公共卫生事件经历分为三种模式：（1）曾目睹过突发公共卫生事件，（2）曾经历过突发公共卫生事件，（3）当前正在经历突发公共卫生事件。研究表明，个人经历对针对新冠疫情的保护行为有显著的积极影响。这三种模式对行为的平均影响分别为0.371（<0.001）、0.898（<0.001）和0.319（<0.05）。研究还表明，对于经历过任何一种模式的人来说，在疫情早期，风险认知对保护行为的影响似乎为零。我们提出了个体层面生命历程中风险因素的潜在交互机制。在学术上，本研究发展了风险认知与行为理论，并扩展了生命历程方法在公共卫生领域的应用。在实践中，我们的研究表明，突发公共卫生事件经历对于应对未来的大流行和使预防政策常态化具有重要价值。
