Risk Perceptions, Knowledge and Behaviors of General and High-Risk Adult Populations Towards COVID-19: A Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a major crisis for governments and populations. The public’s risk perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors are key factors that play a vital role in the transmission of infectious diseases. Our scoping review aims to map the early evidence on risk perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors of general and high-risk adult populations towards COVID-19.Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted of peer-reviewed articles in five databases on studies conducted during the early stages of COVID-19. Thirty-one studies meeting the inclusion criteria were appraised and analyzed.Results: The levels of risk perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors towards COVID-19 were moderate to high in both general and high-risk adult populations. Adults were knowledgeable about preventive behaviors. Our review identified hand-washing and avoiding crowded places as dominant preventive behaviors. Being a female, older, more educated, and living in urban areas was associated with better knowledge of COVID-19 and appropriate preventive behaviors.Conclusion: This review offers a first understanding of risk perceptions, knowledge and behaviors of adult populations during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Examining the Influence of Housing Conditions and Daily Greenspace Exposure on People’s Perceived COVID-19 Risk and Distress

“…Furthermore, married people (compared to people who are single, widowed, or divorced) have higher neighborhood-based perceived COVID-19 risk, while people with a high monthly household income (>HKD 40,000, compared to the middle and low monthly household income group) have a lower neighborhood-based perceived COVID-19 risk. The results are consistent with the findings of previous studies, which found that educational status, income level, and marital status have strong associations with people’s perceived COVID-19 risk [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Trust in Science as a Possible Mediator between Different Antecedents and COVID-19 Booster Vaccination Intention: An Integration of Health Belief Model (HBM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

“…In line with the abundant literature on health behaviors, our findings confirmed: (i) the positive relationship provided by HBM theory between perceptions of SARS-CoV-2 risk (vulnerability and severity) and vaccination intention, through fear of COVID-19 [20,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53]; (ii) the positive relationship between subjective norms and both trust in science and vaccination intention [124,125]; (iii) that trust in science plays a crucial role in predicting vaccination intention (11,67,68,79,80,83,84]. The results also provided indications about a positive relationship between subjective norms and fear of COVID-19, and a possible full mediation role of trust in science in the relationships between determinants of both TPA and HBM, fear of COVID-19, and vaccination intention.…”

“…From the review of the HBM literature, several confirmations emerge on the positive relationship between perceptions of SARS-CoV-2 risk (mostly concerning vulnerability and severity) and fear of COVID-19 [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], and on the positive relationship between fear of COVID-19 and vaccination intention [ 20 , 47 , 53 ]. Following these relationships, we can formulate several hypotheses (see Figure 1 ): Hp 1a and Hp 1b: a higher risk perception (higher vulnerability and severity) will be positively related to fear of COVID-19; Hp 2a: a higher fear of COVID-19 will be associated with a lower intention to receive the booster; Hp 2b: a higher fear of COVID-19 will be associated with lower Trust in Science.…”

The relationship between COVID-19 protection behaviors and pandemic-related knowledge, perceptions, worry content and public trust in a Turkish sample

“…Due to an increase in vaccine refusal and a lack of widely used new treatment options, the best way to control the spread of infections is to adapt COVID-19 protection behaviors. Owing to the apparent predictive effect of gender, age, and education level on protective behaviors, speci c plans should be created to strengthen COVID-19 preventive behaviors.In various countries, the level of knowledge is important in adapting to protective behaviors(Clavel et al, 2021). It was also determined that the frequency of obtaining information and having correct knowledge about COVID-19 were positive predictors of protective behavior in this study.…”