Resident physicians' perceptions of COVID-19 risk

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Public Health
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Resident physicians were frontline caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Understanding their personal risk perception is crucial.
• The influence of social media on risk perception was unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess resident physicians' perceived personal risk of COVID-19 during the initial wave.
• To compare risk perceptions between varying levels of social media usage.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional survey conducted in May 2020 at the University of Toronto.
• Included resident physicians from internal medicine, emergency medicine, critical care, and anaesthesia.
• Categorized participants into low-average and high social media users based on daily usage median.

Main Results:

• 98 residents participated; 55.7% cited social media as a primary COVID-19 information source.
• Median perceived hospitalization risk was 10% (IQR 5-25%).
• High social media users reported 17.5% perceived risk vs. 7.5% for low-average users (p=0.10).

Conclusions:

• Resident physicians perceived a significantly elevated risk of COVID-19 hospitalization.
• Perceived hospitalization risk was 250 times higher than the general population risk.
• Social media's role as an information source did not significantly impact risk perception differences.