Avian influenza A/H7N9 risk perception, information trust and adoption of protective behaviours among poultry farmers in Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

BackgroundPoultry farmers are at high-risk from avian influenza A/H7N9 infection due to sustained occupational exposures to live poultry. This study examined factors associated with poultry farmers’ adoption of personal protective behaviours (PPBs) based on Protection Motivation Theory (PMT).MethodsTotally, 297 poultry farmers in three cities of Jiangsu Province, China were interviewed during November 2013-January 2014. Data on PMT constructs, perceived trustworthiness of A/H7N9 information from mass media (formal sources), friends and family (informal sources), intention to adopt and actual adoption of PPBs and respondents’ demographics were collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) identified associations between demographic factors and PMT constructs associated with A/H7N9-oriented PPB intention. Moderated mediation analysis examined how demographics moderated the effects of information trust on PPB intention via risk perceptions of A/H7N9.ResultsRespondents generally perceived low vulnerability to A/H7N9 infection. The SEM found that male respondents perceived lower severity of (β = −0.23), and lower vulnerability to (β = -0.15) A/H7N9 infection; age was positively associated with both perceived personal vulnerability to (β = 0.21) and perceived self-efficacy (β = 0.24) in controlling A/H7N9; education was positively associated with perceived response efficacy (β = 0.40). Furthermore, perceived vulnerability (β = 0.16), perceived self-efficacy (β = 0.21) and response efficacy (β = 0.67) were positively associated with intention to adopt PPBs against A/H7N9. More trust in informal information (TII) was only significantly associated with greater PPB intention through its positive association with perceived response efficacy. Age significantly moderated the associations of TII with perceived Self-efficacy and perceived response efficacy, with younger farmers who had greater TII perceiving lower self-efficacy but higher response efficacy.ConclusionPoultry farmers perceive A/H7N9 as a personally-irrelevant risk. Interventions designed to enhance perceived response efficacy, particularly among lower educated respondents may effectively motivate adoption of PPBs. Informal information may be an important resource for enhancing response efficacy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4364-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Chinese poultry farmers' decision‐making for avian influenza prevention: a qualitative analysis

“…Consistent with previous empirical studies about human infection with A/H7N9, (Cui et al, ) perceived vulnerability/susceptibility, perceived self‐efficacy and response efficacy were associated with adoption of self‐protective behaviours against human infection with A/H7N9. People with more exposure to live poultry often perceived lower susceptibility to A/H7N9 infection and further less likely adopt self‐protective actions (Ma et al, ; Zwart, Veldhuijzen, Richardus, & Brug, ).…”

“…AI‐related information communication triggered the adoption of recommended self‐protective behaviours against human infection with A/H7N9 (Cui et al, ; Milne, Sheeran, & Orbell, ) and preventive behaviours against poultry infection with A/H5N1, showing no difference with British cattle and sheep farmers adopted biosecurity behaviours to keep animal healthy (Toma, Stott, Heffernan, Ringrose, & Gunn, ).…”

“…There have been many relevant studies focused on poultry farmers' preventive behaviours against AI. In the literature that was available, except a qualitative analysis of lay perceptions of A/H5N1 aetiology (Liao, Lam, Dang, et al, ), quantitative research dominates, and these quantitative studies focus on either the poultry farmers' behaviours protecting poultry against A/H5N1 infection (Cui & Liu, ; Huang, Zeng, & Wang, ; Tiongco, Narrod, Scott, Kobayashi, & Omiti, ) or personal protective behaviours against A/H7N9 infection (Cui, Liao, Lam, Liu, & Fielding, ) and A/H5N1 infection (Hossain, Eusufzai, Elahi, & Jamayet, ; Neupane, Khanal, Ghimire, Aro, & Leppin, ; Yu et al, ). However, the preventive behaviours and personal protective behaviours of poultry farmers occur simultaneously because of the dual risks their face.…”

Protection motivation theory in predicting cervical cancer screening participation: A longitudinal study in rural Chinese women

“…Protection motivation theory (PMT) has been widely used in research to enhance our understanding of the health risk and protective behaviors. [19][20][21][22] Among commonly used theories of health behavior, such as knowledge, attitude and behavior model, theory of planned behavior and health belief model, PMT offers a model with two closely related cognitive process of threat and coping appraisal that link various predictions to behavioral outcome ( Figure 1). 23,24 The threat appraisal evaluates an individual's perception of threat of a disease or health risk behavior using three subconstructs of perceived risk, perceived severity along with fear arousal; while the coping appraisal assesses a person's perception of their ability to cope with threat using another three constructs of response efficacy, response cost and self-efficacy.…”

“…Protection motivation theory (PMT) has been widely used in research to enhance our understanding of the health risk and protective behaviors . Among commonly used theories of health behavior, such as knowledge, attitude and behavior model, theory of planned behavior and health belief model, PMT offers a model with two closely related cognitive process of threat and coping appraisal that link various predictions to behavioral outcome (Figure ) .…”