Risk Perception and Depression in Public Health Crises: Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis in China

Abstract

Background: Scant attention has been paid to how risk perceptions of public health crises may affect people’s mental health. Aims: The aims of this study are to (1) construct a conceptual framework for risk perception and depression of people in public health crises, (2) examine how the mental health of people in the crisis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is affected by risk perception and its associated factors, including distance perception of the crisis and support of prevention and control policies, and (3) propose policy recommendations on how to deal with psychological problems in the current COVID-19 crisis. Methods: Online questionnaire survey was implemented. A total of 6373 people visited the questionnaire online, 1115 people completed the questionnaire, and the number of valid questionnaires was 1081. Structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. Results: Risk perception and its associated factors significantly affect the mental health of people in public health crises. Specifically, (1) distance perception of public health crises is negatively associated with depression among people, (2) affective risk perception is positively associated with depression of people in public health crises, (3) cognitive risk perception is negatively associated with depression of people in public health crises, and (4) support of prevention and control policies is negatively associated with depression of people in public health crises. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that risk perception plays an important role in affecting the mental health of people in a public health crisis. Therefore, health policies aiming to improve the psychological wellbeing of the people in a public health crisis should take risk perception into consideration.

Relationships between Physical and Social Behavioural Changes and the Mental Status of Homebound Residents in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This study found that 29.7% of participants reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms and this result was similar to studies conducted in China and Italy, which found that 25% and 32.8% of the participants, respectively had moderate to severe depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic [27,28]. The level of depressive symptoms can be affected by the risk perception of health crisis.…”

“…Personal knowledge, trust in government, healthcare professionals and science, and information of COVID-19 collected from friends and family are significant predictors of risk perception [30]. Additionally, affective risk perception, which is strongly subjective, is positively associated with the depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, while negative association is found between cognitive risk perception, meaning individual judgement is based on scientific support, and depressive symptoms [27]. Risk perception may result in changes in daily routines such as paying more attention to personal hygiene and browsing more prevention information during the pandemic, hence, affecting depressive symptoms.…”

“…A higher score represents a greater level of depressive symptoms. Participants were classified into five different groups based on the severity of depressive symptoms: (i) having minimal or no depressive symptoms (0-4); (ii) mild (5-9); (iii) moderate (10)(11)(12)(13)(14); (iv) moderately severe (15)(16)(17)(18)(19); and (v) severe depressive symptoms (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). Typically, participants with scores of 10 and above would be advised to seek medical attention.…”

Adaptability Promotes Student Engagement Under COVID-19: The Multiple Mediating Effects of Academic Emotion

“…Another interesting future direction would be to examine how university students' health risk perceptions impact their academic emotions and engagement. Both the antecedents and the consequences (Ding et al, 2020) of health risk perceptions during COVID-19 have been examined by recent research. For example, examined the relationship between COVID-19 health risk perceptions and emotions among quarantined adolescents in Italy.…”

Does Physical Activity Matter for the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…Although a lockdown increases the chance of effectively dealing with COVID-19, it also contributes to a decrease in people's well-being [1][2][3][4], invoking several adverse emotional reactions such as anger, fear, confusion, irritability, frustration, elevated stress, insomnia, and nervousness [1,4,5]. Thousands of people have lost their work and socio-economic status during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”