Mosquito-borne infectious disease, risk-perceptions, and personal protective behavior among U.S. international travelers

Abstract

Vector-borne diseases account for a significant amount of the global infectious disease burden, including morbidity and mortality. In particular, mosquito-borne infectious diseases (MBIDs) have the greatest burden in number of cases, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years and their prevention and control is critical. However, prevention efforts are hindered by the absence of vaccines and failure of long-term mosquito vector control for these MBIDs. Thus, personal protective behaviors (PPBs) may offer the most promising and effective mode of prevention. This study examines the impact of awareness, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity for five MBIDs (e.g., Malaria, Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and West Nile) on the adoption of PPBs. Study participants (n = 1043) were recruited from a probability-based internet panel of adult United States residents with a history of traveling outside of the country in the past year. Data were collected in the U.S. between June 7, 2017 and June 12, 2017. Our findings show that awareness of Zika disease among respondents was consistently associated with adoption of all three PPBs. Respondents that reported high-perceived severity for all five MBIDs were also more likely to report adopting the PPBs of wearing covering clothing and use of mosquito repellent spray. Our findings indicate that U.S. travelers are largely more concerned about Zika, Chikungunya, and Dengue than Malaria and West Nile and that these concerns drive their adoption of the three recommended PPBs. This information should inform the development and design of future public health campaigns for behavior modification to prevent MBIDs.

Intention-Based Critical Factors Affecting Willingness to Adopt Novel Coronavirus Prevention in Pakistan: Implications for Future Pandemics

“…Risk-averse behavior was considered a useful means to avoid pandemics. Further, Omodior et al [ 118 ] investigated the impact of perceived severity and perceived susceptibility on the adoption of personnel protective behaviors (PPB) in the case of five mosquito-borne pandemics. They did it by considering a sample of 1043 respondents from the U.S.…”

Perception-based influence factors of intention to adopt COVID-19 epidemic prevention in China

“…To begin with, the previous studies fundamentally focussed on the prevention and control of diseases such as Malaria, AIDS, 1 West Nile, Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya ( Cui et al, 2019 ; Omodior et al, 2018 ; Przybyla et al, 2019 ; Raude et al, 2019 ; Xiaoliang et al, 2016 ). The first group of researches focussed on the epidemiology of diseases like Malaria, Dengue, and AIDS ( Bryant-davis et al, 2016 ; Cui et al, 2019 ).…”

Investigation and Response to an Outbreak of Dengue: Island of Hawaii, 2015-2016

“…Focusing efforts on behavioral and cultural changes in attitudes, such as shifting persons' perceptions about mosquitoes from one of a nuisance to being disease carriers or emphasizing the importance of practicing personal protection from mosquitoes and communitylevel mosquito control, would seem more feasible than focusing on mosquito eradication to address mosquitoborne disease risk. [19][20][21] However, effecting these changes is an ongoing challenge and may be more effective as a prevention strategy than as an outbreak response. Targeting response activities, such as mosquito abatement, with the aid of GIS methods may prove timelier and more effective during an outbreak response through improving situational awareness.…”