Risk-Likelihood Perceptions and Preventive Behaviors Against Infectious Diseases: Testing Different Types of...

Area of Science:

• Public Health Communication
• Health Behavior Theory
• Risk Perception Studies

Background:

• Effective public health messaging requires understanding how perceived risk influences behavior.
• Existing health behavior theories suggest high perceived risk motivates prevention, but this is complicated by varied risk estimation methods.
• A review of 14 studies on infectious disease risk perception revealed inconsistent findings on the link between perceived risk likelihood and behavioral intention.

Approach:

• Examined the predictive power of different risk likelihood types on infectious disease prevention intention.
• Utilized two datasets from the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak (N=557) and the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic (N=1,001).
• Compared the predictive accuracy of various risk perception measures on behavioral intention.

Key Points:

• Conditional absolute risk perception, focusing on future inaction, significantly predicted behavioral intention.
• Other risk perception types showed weaker or negative associations with behavioral intention when conditional absolute risk perception was accounted for.
• Behavioral intention and unconditional absolute risk perception demonstrated a negative relationship.

Conclusions:

• Conditional absolute risk perception is a more potent predictor of preventive health intentions than other risk measures.
• Findings offer valuable insights for developing targeted public health communication strategies during infectious disease outbreaks.
• This research refines our understanding of risk perception's role in health behavior, informing future outbreak communication efforts.