Who Cares? A Pilot Study of Pandemic Influenza Risk Perception in an Urban Population

The association of urban population sociodemographic factors and components of pandemic influenza risk perception were studied.

A prospective questionnaire-based study was undertaken between March 14, 2019 and October 18, 2019. A total of 464 questionnaires were distributed to 4 primary medical centers in 2 cities in England and Wales. Persons aged over 16 years presenting to the medical centers were asked to participate.

A total of 222 questionnaires were completed (return rate 47.8%). Participants were aged 16-84 years, with a median age of 45.5 years. Prevalence of 1 or more chronic diseases was 29.1%. Seasonal flu vaccination within 5 years was reported by 58.9%. Bivariate analyses of chronic disease and influenza vaccination observed a statistically significant association with influenza personal susceptibility expression (OR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.22 - 0.94) and (OR = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.25 - 0.99) respectively. Multivariate analysis observed a statistically significant association between the presence of chronic disease and low comparative risk expression (OR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.15 - 0.74) (P = 0.007).

Respondents identifying as 'healthy' are more likely to express lower risk perception of pandemic influenza. Importantly, this target group is not the usual focus of influenza campaigns and are perhaps more likely to disregard health advice. Factors influencing perceptions of this target group could be an important focus of future pandemic risk perception research.