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Published on: November 10, 2023
Fear and rumor associated with COVID-19 among Iranian adults, 2020
Maryam Zamanian1, Delniya Ahmadi2, Setayesh Sindarreh2
1Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran.
Context:
At time of epidemics, fear and rumors in the community are the main obstacles to the success of prevention programs.
Aims:
The aim of the study was to investigate the fear and rumors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among the Iranian population.
Settings And Design:
This nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted on residents of six cities of Iran via street-based multistage sampling in March 2020.
Subjects And Methods:
The eligible participants completed a self-administered questionnaire about rumor and fear related to COVID-19 epidemy.
Statistical Analysis Used:
Data were analyzed through linear regression and survey analysis using Stata (version 11).
Results:
A total of 2249 (49.3% women) were included. The main source of information was Iranian broadcasting (68.5%). The overall mean (standard deviation) score of fear and rumor among the Iranian population was 15.68 (0.46) and 39.24 (1.27), respectively. Educational level was associated with fear of COVID-19 (P = 0.001). Trusting to the rumors was affected by age (<0.0001), education level (P < 0.0001), underlying disease (P = 0.017), and workplace situation (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
The fear and rumor surrounding the epidemic of COVID-19 were common in society that could make an epidemic of COVID-19 difficult to control. Increasing public awareness via reliable mass media is recommended.
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