Older Adults’ Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lombardy Region of Italy: A Cross-sectional Survey

Guastafierro, Erika; Toppo, Claudia; Magnani, Francesca Giulia; Romano, Rosa; Facchini, Carla; Campioni, Rino; Brambilla, Ersilia; Leonardi, Matilde

doi:10.1080/01634372.2020.1870606

Cited by 25 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…Conversely, the perception of risk vulnerability was higher in younger than older adult groups. Our findings are consistent with those of recent research on COVID-19 (Bruine de Bruin, 2020;Pasion et al, 2020;Guastafierro et al, 2021;Kivi et al, 2021). This pattern of results reveals that older adults have a different perception of risk vulnerability and risk severity and confirms the distinction between the two aspects of risk perception proposed by both the HBM (Rogers, 1983) and the PMT (Becker, 1974).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…the exception of people over 70. This result suggests that, in line with the availability heuristic (Tversky and Kahneman, 1982), individuals from 18 to 69 years old may have used their personal experience with COVID-19 as a cue to estimate their risk perception about the virus (Liu et al, 2020;Guastafierro et al, 2021). Participants over 70 years did not use heuristic to perceive the risk of COVID-19, possibly because of a reduction in cognitive resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…We expected to find age-related differences in risk perception (H1) and a different pattern of predictors of risk perception in younger vs. older adults (H2). Specifically, we hypothesized that older adults would perceive higher risk severity (Bruine de Bruin, 2020) but less vulnerability risk of getting COVID-19 than younger adults (Bruine de Bruin, 2020; Pasion et al, 2020;Guastafierro et al, 2021;Kivi et al, 2021). Moreover, in line with the SST (Carstensen et al, 1999), we expected that older people experienced fewer negative emotions and less anxiety, and that their risk perception was determined more by emotions compared to younger adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few studies have examined the age-related differences in risk perception using hypothetical reallife situations (e.g., Hanoch et al, 2018;Sun and Sun, 2019). Recently, the COVID-19 outbreak gave researchers the opportunity to focus on the perception of risk across the lifespan applied to a real-life situation (Bruine de Bruin, 2020;Pasion et al, 2020;Guastafierro et al, 2021;Kivi et al, 2021). These studies revealed that the perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 tends to decrease as age increases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The availability heuristic suggests that people who have a recent personal experience of a specific event have higher risk perception (Slovic et al, 2004). Recent studies found that the perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 was higher in individuals who knew someone infected with it (Liu et al, 2020;Guastafierro et al, 2021), presumably because they used this experience as a cue (Peters et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk Perception in a Real-World Situation (COVID-19): How It Changes From 18 to 87 Years Old

et al. 2021

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Studies on age-related differences in risk perception in a real-world situation, such as the recent COVID-19 outbreak, showed that the risk perception of getting COVID-19 tends to decrease as age increases. This finding raised the question on what factors could explain risk perception in older adults. The present study examined age-related differences in risk perception in the early stages of COVID-19 lockdown, analyzing variables that can explain the differences in perception of risk at different ages. A total of 1,765 adults aged between 18 and 87 years old completed an online survey assessing perceived risk severity and risk vulnerability of getting COVID-19, sociodemographic status, emotional state, experience relating to COVID-19, and physical health status. Results showed that the older the participants, the lower the perceived vulnerability to getting COVID-19, but the higher the perceived severity. Different predictors explain the perception of risk severity and vulnerability at different ages. Overall, self-reported anxiety over the pandemic is a crucial predictor in explaining risk perceptions in all age groups. Theoretical and practical implications of the empirical findings are discussed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk Perception in a Real-World Situation (COVID-19): How It Changes From 18 to 87 Years Old

et al. 2021

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Older People in Germany During the COVID-19 Pandemic:The Least, the More, and the Most Affected

Horn

Semmler²,

Schweppe

2021

Population Ageing

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Older people have been identified as a particularly vulnerable group during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the question of how older people actually fared during the COVID-19 pandemic has only been sporadically addressed. This article aims to partly fill this gap by classifying subgroups of older people using Latent Class Analysis. Indicators used are: risk perception, safety behavior, and well-being. To predict subgroup membership, age, gender, living arrangement, children, chronic illness, conflict, socioeconomic status, and migration history are controlled for. The data analyzed stem from a phone survey among 491 older people (75–100 years) in Germany conducted in September/October 2020. Results show that three subgroups of older people – the least, the more and the most affected – can be formed based on their risk perception, safety behavior, and well-being, indicating the usefulness of these three constructs for identifying and studying older people particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it.

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Racial/Ethnic Differences in Prosocial Beliefs and Prevention Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Orom

Allard

Kiviniemi

et al. 2021

J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

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Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic has required communities to engage in prosocial action, including behaviors that may inconvenience individuals, but protect the collective (e.g., mask wearing, social distancing). The purpose of this study was to understand to what extent COVID-19 prosocial beliefs and behavior differ by race/ethnicity and why this might be the case. A US nationally representative sample of 410 adults completed a survey about COVID-19 beliefs and prevention behaviors between June 12 and 18, 2020. Compared to White respondents, Black respondents perceived the risk of COVID-19 to be greater to the US population; and both Black and Latinx respondents thought it was more important to protect a variety of non-close others (e.g., people in their city or state). Black and Latinx respondents engaged in several prevention behaviors, including social distancing, to a greater extent than White respondents. There were indirect effects of Black vs. White race on engaging in protective behaviors through greater perceived risk to others and beliefs in the importance of protecting distal others. Results indicate that targeted messages promoting prevention, including vaccination with pro-social messages, may resonate with communities of color. They also suggest that lower levels of prosocial beliefs among White people have likely hindered the US response to the epidemic.

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Older Adults’ Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lombardy Region of Italy: A Cross-sectional Survey

Cited by 25 publications

References 39 publications

Risk Perception in a Real-World Situation (COVID-19): How It Changes From 18 to 87 Years Old

Risk Perception in a Real-World Situation (COVID-19): How It Changes From 18 to 87 Years Old

Older People in Germany During the COVID-19 Pandemic:The Least, the More, and the Most Affected

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Prosocial Beliefs and Prevention Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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