Association between preventive behaviour and anxiety at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia

Abstract

IntroductionThe first large outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in Europe occurred in Northern Italy in February 2020. The relatively fast spread of the infection to Slovenia was expected, and preventive measures for its suppression were widely discussed.MethodsAn online questionnaire was designed to evaluate adherence to preventive measures and the extent to which the taking of preventive measures was associated with people’s anxiety level, psychological burden, their perceived vulnerability to disease, germ aversion and a number of demographic characteristics in the early stage of Covid-19 spread. The survey was active for 24 hours (13–14 March 2020). There were 12,307 responses and 7,764 questionnaires were completed in full.ResultsHigher preventive behaviour was found in individuals who experienced greater psychological distress, were more anxious, and expressed greater perceived infectability and germ aversion. Greater compliance with preventive behaviour was found among women, those sharing a household with people aged over 65, the elderly and those who knew somebody who had been infected. These groups also showed higher anxiety levels, which appeared to be significantly increased in general as a result of the specific situation. Quarantine was evaluated as the most efficient preventive measure, and was respected relatively strictly even before it became an officially announced protective measure.ConclusionThis research reveals a strong association between preventive behaviour and anxiety. Anxiety, together with social distancing, may affect physical and psychological health in the population in the long term. Other aspects of public health might therefore be influenced by the measures currently being enforced to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Attitudes of Nursing Students towards Vaccination and Other Preventive Measures for Limitation of COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study in Three European Countries

“…The self-assessed psychological burden was in fairly weak positive correlation with vaccination intention and advising vaccination, but the correlation between the anxiety score and all three preventive measure values was close to zero. These results differ from the findings in the general population at the initial stage of the pandemic, when a higher level of preventive behavior was found in individuals who experienced greater psychological distress, were more anxious, expressed greater perceived infectability, and experienced greater germ aversion [16]. There was even a negative correlation between the anxiety score and preventive behavior score in accordance with the recently published research performed by Wang et al [45] who investigated the association between the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and taking precautionary measures in China, and showed that greater adherence to preventive measures was linked to lower degrees of anxiety, stress and depression.…”

“…Parts of the instrument were as follows: assessment of preventive behavior : respondents evaluated their level of agreement with 10 statements describing different preventive measures from 1 (absolutely not) to 5 (absolutely yes) as described previously [ 16 ] with the additional statement ‘I regularly take care for aeration of premises’. For further analysis the average value of all statements was calculated for each respondent to obtain the preventive behavior score (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.75).…”

“…The GAD-7 consists of 7 questions based in part on the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fourth Edition) criteria for GAD, and reflects the frequency of symptoms during the preceding 2-week period; for each symptom queried it provides the following response options: “not at all”, “several days”, “over half the days” and “nearly every day”, and these are scored 0, 1, 2 or 3, respectively (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.92). perceived infectability and germ aversion : The Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire, PVDQ, developed by Duncan et al [ 15 ] and adopted to be more reflective of current reality [ 16 ], a 15-item self-report on a 7-point scale response (with endpoints labeled as “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree”) was used. It measures two factors: perceived infectability (assesses beliefs in one’s own susceptibility to infectious diseases, e.g., “If an illness is going around, I will get it”; 7 items) (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.68) and germ aversion (assesses emotional discomfort in contexts where disease-causing germs might be transmitted, e.g., “It really bothers me when people sneeze without covering their mouth”; 8 items) (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.56).…”

“…perceived infectability and germ aversion : The Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire, PVDQ, developed by Duncan et al [ 15 ] and adopted to be more reflective of current reality [ 16 ], a 15-item self-report on a 7-point scale response (with endpoints labeled as “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree”) was used. It measures two factors: perceived infectability (assesses beliefs in one’s own susceptibility to infectious diseases, e.g., “If an illness is going around, I will get it”; 7 items) (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.68) and germ aversion (assesses emotional discomfort in contexts where disease-causing germs might be transmitted, e.g., “It really bothers me when people sneeze without covering their mouth”; 8 items) (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.56).…”

“…Compliance with preventive measures is influenced by individuals’ attitudes and perceived vulnerability to disease [ 15 ]. Also, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic greater compliance with preventive behavior has been found in individuals who experience greater psychological distress, are more anxious, and express greater perceived infectability and germ aversion [ 16 ]. Vaccination acceptance and vaccination hesitancy are influenced by several factors, such as fear of adverse side effects and vaccine safety, perceived ineffectiveness of vaccine, poor information regarding illness/vaccine, perceived low risk of contracting illness, fear of needles, perceived low severity of illness, etc.…”