ABSTRACT
Background: Risk perception is a key factor influencing the public's behavioral response to major public health events. The research on public risk perception promotes the emergency management system to adapt to the needs of modern development. This article is based on a risk information perspective, using the COVID-19 event as an example. From the micro and macro perspectives, the influencing factors of public risk perception in major public health events in China are extracted, and the attribution model and index system of public risk perception are established. Methods: In this paper, the five-level Likert scale is used to collect and measure the risk perception variable questionnaire through the combination of online and offline methods (a total of 550 questionnaires, the overall Alpha coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.955, and the KMO test coefficient t=0.941), and through independent samples t-test, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and other methods to draw relevant conclusions. Results: The results showed that gender and age were significantly associated with risk perception (p<0.005), and education level was significantly negatively associated with risk perception (p <0 0.005). Risk information attention and risk perception were significantly positively correlated (p<0.005), media credibility was significantly positively correlated with risk perception (p<0.005), while risk information identification and media exposure had no significant interaction with risk perception (p=0.125, p=0.352). Conclusion: Factors such as gender, age, education level, place of residence, media exposure, media credibility, risk information attention, and recognition lead to different levels of risk perception. This conclusion helps to provide a basis for relevant departments to conduct public risk management of major public health events based on differences in risk perceptions.
ABSTRACT
The public's risk perception of public health emergencies will determine their behavior choices to a certain extent. Research on public risk perception of emergencies is an integral part of crisis management. From the perspective of the whole life cycle, this article takes the COVID-19 epidemic as an example. It conducts empirical analysis to study the influencing factors of public risk perception of public health emergencies. The results show that: (1) the public's risk perception is affected by individual factors, event characteristics, social influencing factors, and individual relationship factors. (2) The more the public is familiar with the epidemic, the lower the risk of the epidemic. The more the public can control the loss of the epidemic risk, the perceived epidemic risk will be reduced. The more the public trusts the supreme power of the government, the lower the risk of the epidemic in their hearts is. The higher the closeness of the risk and impact of the epidemic to individuals, the higher the level of risk perception is. (3)The public's risk perception will evolve with the development of the situation, and there are differences in recognition of government departments' control measures at different stages of public health emergencies. The relevant departments should effectively guide the public's risk response behavior in combination with the life cycle of public health emergencies. The research conclusions of this article clarify the dynamic evolution of risk perception and provide a specific reference for the emergency management of public health emergencies.