Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 21, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 28, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Nov 5, 2020
Chinese Residents’ Perceptions During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: Online Cross-Sectional Survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a global threat due to substantial morbidity and mortality, and health education strategies need to be adjusted timely to prevent a possible epidemic rebound.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the perceptions of COVID-19 among individuals coming to, returning to, or living in the Jiangsu Province of China, and realize the impact of epidemic development on public's perceptions.
Methods:
In this study, an online self-designed questionnaire was used between February 15 and April 21, 2020. Factors influencing the knowledge score, skill score, behavior score, and total score for COVID-19 were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses. The time-varying reproduction number (Rt) and its 95% credible interval were calculated and compared with the daily participation number and protection scores.
Results:
A total of 52,066 participants were included in the study; their average knowledge score, skill score, behavior score, and total score were 25.58 (SD 4.22), 24.05 (SD 4.02), 31.51 (SD 2.84), and 90.02 (SD 8.87), respectively, and 65.91% of them had a total protection score above 90 points. For the knowledge and skill sections, correct rates of questions on medical observation days, infectiousness of asymptomatic individuals, cough or sneeze treatment, and precautions were higher than 95%, while those of questions on initial symptoms, transmission routes, selection of disinfection products, and measures of home quarantine were relatively low: 62.01%, 71.32%, 71.81%, and 76.90%, respectively. For the actual behavior section, 97.93% of participants could wear masks properly when going out. However, 19.76% could not disinfect their homes each week, and 18.42% could not distinguish the initial symptoms between the common cold and COVID-19. The regression analyses showed that the knowledge score, skill score, behavior score, and total score were influenced by sex, age, educational level, occupation, and place of residence at different degrees (P<.001). The government, television shows, and news outlets were the main sources for protection knowledge, and the information released by the government and authoritative medical experts was considered the most reliable. The current information needs included the latest epidemic development, disease treatment progress, and daily protection knowledge. The Rt in the Jiangsu Province and Chinese Mainland dropped below 1, while the global Rt remained at around 1. The maximal information coefficients (MICs) ranged from 0.76 to 1.00, which indicated that public's perceptions were significantly associated with the epidemic development.
Conclusions:
A high proportion of the participants had better COVID-19 protection knowledge and skills and were able to avoid risky behaviors. It is then necessary to apply different health education measures based on the characteristics of resuming work and study to guide some specific populations to improve their protection perceptions ultimately to prevent the possible rebound of COVID-19.
Citation
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