Sætrevik Bjørn, Cox Rebecca J, Linchausen Dagrun W, Bjørkheim Sebastian B
Operational Psychology Research Group, Department for Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway.
Influenza Centre, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Norway.
Scand J Public Health. 2025 Jul;53(5):517-524. doi: 10.1177/14034948251315341. Epub 2025 Feb 27.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to assess how infected patients viewed risk. We investigated whether cases infected early in the pandemic had assessed the risk to be lower, been more exposed and took fewer precautions to prevent infection.
We asked first-wave Norwegian COVID-19 patients ( = 88) to recall how they had thought about risk of infection, exposure in potential infectious situations and their compliance to infection control measures early in the pandemic. Answers from this group were compared WITH emergency room patients with non-pulmonary complaints ( = 75) and with a nationally representative sample ( = 4083).
Both patient groups saw the risk as lower than did the representative sample. Contact with infected people was more frequent for the COVID-19 patients than for the other patients. More of the COVID-19 patients had travelled abroad immediately before the outbreak. COVID-19 patients complied less with the infection control measures than did the representative sample. The COVID-19 patients agreed less than the other patients with a statement that they had 'complied in general'.
Risk-behaviour was overrepresented among the first COVID-19 patients. Potential memory artefacts should be considered when interpreting the results.
新冠疫情提供了一个独特的机会来评估感染患者如何看待风险。我们调查了疫情早期感染的病例是否认为风险较低、接触更多且采取较少的预防措施来防止感染。
我们询问了挪威第一波新冠患者（n = 88），回忆他们在疫情早期如何看待感染风险、在潜在感染情况下的接触情况以及他们对感染控制措施的遵守情况。将该组的答案与有非肺部疾病主诉的急诊患者（n = 75）以及全国代表性样本（n = 4083）进行比较。
两个患者组都认为风险低于代表性样本。新冠患者与感染者的接触比其他患者更频繁。更多的新冠患者在疫情爆发前立即出国旅行。新冠患者对感染控制措施的遵守程度低于代表性样本。与其他患者相比，新冠患者对“总体上遵守”这一说法的认同度更低。
首批新冠患者中风险行为的比例过高。在解释结果时应考虑潜在的记忆假象。
