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Title: | The influence of risk perceptions on close contact frequency during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic | Authors: | WAMBUA, James HERMANS, Lisa COLETTI, Pietro Verelst, Frederik WILLEM, Lander Jarvis, Christopher, I Gimma, Amy Wong, Kerry L. M. LAJOT, Adrien Demarest, Stefaan Edmunds, W. John FAES, Christel Beutels, Philippe HENS, Niel |
Issue Date: | 2022 | Publisher: | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Source: | SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 12 (1) (Art N° 5192) | Abstract: | Human behaviour is known to be crucial in the propagation of infectious diseases through respiratory or close-contact routes like the current SARS-CoV-2 virus. Intervention measures implemented to curb the spread of the virus mainly aim at limiting the number of close contacts, until vaccine roll-out is complete. Our main objective was to assess the relationships between SARS-CoV-2 perceptions and social contact behaviour in Belgium. Understanding these relationships is crucial to maximize interventions' effectiveness, e.g. by tailoring public health communication campaigns. In this study, we surveyed a representative sample of adults in Belgium in two longitudinal surveys (survey 1 in April 2020 to August 2020, and survey 2 in November 2020 to April 2021). Generalized linear mixed effects models were used to analyse the two surveys. Participants with low and neutral perceptions on perceived severity made a significantly higher number of social contacts as compared to participants with high levels of perceived severity after controlling for other variables. Our results highlight the key role of perceived severity on social contact behaviour during a pandemic. Nevertheless, additional research is required to investigate the impact of public health communication on severity of COVID-19 in terms of changes in social contact behaviour. | Notes: | Wambua, J (corresponding author), UHasselt, Data Sci Inst, I BioStat, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. james.wambua@uhasselt.be |
Document URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1942/37246 | ISSN: | 2045-2322 | e-ISSN: | 2045-2322 | DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-022-09037-8 | ISI #: | WOS:000773323400024 | Rights: | Tis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made | Category: | A1 | Type: | Journal Contribution | Validations: | ecoom 2023 |
Appears in Collections: | Research publications |
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s41598-022-09037-8.pdf | Published version | 3.33 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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