» Veröffentlicht am
18. Dezember 2023
New paper on the adherence to behavioral measures against the spread of COVID-19
Sattler, S., Taflinger, S., Ernst, A., Hasselhorn, F. (2024). Ein
moderiertes Mediationsmodell zur Erklärung der Beziehung zwischen
Risikogruppenzugehörigkeit, Wahrnehmung der Bedrohung, Wissen und
Einhaltung der COVID-19-Verhaltensmaßnahmen. Pp. 33-69, in:
Henzler, I., Hues, H., Sonnleitner, S., Wilkens, U. (eds.),
Extended Views. Gesellschafts- und wirtschaftswissenschaftliche
Perspektiven auf die COVID-19-Pandemie (Köln: Böhlau) Übersetzung
aus dem Englischen von: doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.842368.
Background:
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.
Methods:
We conducted a web-based survey (N = 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.
Results:
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. Conclusion:
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.
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