Abstract

This study examined people’s expected responses to seasonal influenza in terms of risk perceptions from different exposure paths and protective actions that could avoid illness. The data reveal significant differences among ten exposure paths and seven protective actions. Among the exposure paths, drinking from an infected person's glass without washing it received the highest hazard rating, whereas walking past that person on the sidewalk got the lowest rating. With regard to the seven protective actions, frequent hand washing had the highest ratings on protective efficacy and utility for other purposes and was the most strongly expected to be implemented, whereas wearing a surgical mask had the lowest ratings on these attributes and was least strongly expected to be implemented. As predicted, female gender and past influenza experience had significant positive correlations with hazard-related attributes and behavioral expectations but had nonsignificant correlations with resource-related attributes. This study’s findings suggest ways of enhancing the effectiveness of risk communication for seasonal influenza and other respiratory infectious diseases.

摘要

这项研究从不同的暴露途径和可以避免疾病的防护措施的风险感知方面，研究了人们对季节性流感的预期反应。数据显示十种暴露途径和七种保护措施之间存在显着差异。在暴露路径中，从感染者的玻璃杯中喝水不洗就可以得到最高的危险等级，而在人行道上经过那个人的玻璃得到的危险等级最低。关于这七种防护措施，经常洗手对其他目的的防护功效和效用具有最高的评价，并且最有可能被实施，而戴着外科口罩在这些属性上的评价最低，并且期望值最低将要执行。如预期的那样 女性性别和过去的流感经历与危害相关属性和行为期望之间存在显着正相关，而与资源相关属性之间则无显着相关。这项研究的发现提出了增强季节性流感和其他呼吸道传染性疾病风险沟通有效性的方法。