Behavioural responses and anxiety symptoms during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Japan: A large scale cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background This study explored the behavioural responses and anxiety symptoms of the general adult population in Japan during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Methods A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between 12 th and 13 th May 2020. Quota sampling was used to attain equal gender and age distributions representative of the Japanese population. Results A total of 4,127 complete responses were analysed. Higher educational level (B=0.045, p =0.002) and household income (B=0.04, p =0.009) were associated with a higher increase in preventive measures when comparing before and after the state of emergency was declared. The highest reported social anxiety was a feeling of fear (65.6%), followed by embarrassment (43.8%), keeping infection a secret (41.3%), avoidance (41.3%), and stigma (25.5%). A total of 86.1% of the respondents reported moderate to severe anxiety. The partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that being female has the greatest effect (B=0.246, p <0.0001) on higher current preventive measures, followed by social anxiety (B=0.119; p =0.001) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores (B=0.153; p <0.001). Perceived susceptibility (B=0.033, p =0.020), knowing someone who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 (B=0.097, p <0.001), higher income (B=0.079, p <0.001) and educational level (B=0.045; p =0.004) all had a small but significant effect on influencing levels of preventive measures. Conclusions A moderate level of preventive practices found in this study indicates the need to encourage behavioural change to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The provision of mental health services is warranted as anxiety symptoms are prevalent.

Fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence of social distancing adherence from a panel study of young adults in Switzerland

“…There are numerous studies describing and investigating compliance with Covid-19 measures in various countries, particularly for the US [2][3][4][5][6][7], Germany [8], Italy [9], Switzerland [1,10], Slovakia [11], Israel [12], South Korea [13], Japan [14], Indonesia [15], or Co ˆte d'Ivoire [16]. Even though many of these studies only use opportunity samples or student samples, a few consistent results have still emerged.…”

“…However, there are also some socio-demographic differences. Thus, women adhere more often to preventive measures than do men [1,5,7,10,[13][14][15]. Less consistent are the findings concerning age.…”

“…Less consistent are the findings concerning age. Most studies report that younger people are less inclined to comply with Covid-19 measures [5,11], but there is also opposing evidence [2,4,14].…”

“…More interesting are findings concerning individuals' psychological dispositions like selfcontrol, trust in government and health institutions, and risk perception. Not surprisingly, subjects perceiving a higher risk of becoming infected exhibit more preventive behaviors (e. g. [7,8,11,13,14]. There are a number of studies investigating the effect of certain psychological dispositions on non-compliance with coronavirus safety measures.…”

Exploring Factors and Associate Responses for Anxiety in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Web-Based Survey in Japan

“…We sent the survey link to 5,610 individuals and a total of 4,134 participants responded to the questionnaire. After data cleaning (the respondents with logically inconsistent answers were excluded), 4,127 complete responses were analyzed in this study ( Cai et al, 2021 ).…”