Government trust, perceptions of COVID-19 and behaviour change: cohort surveys, Singapore.
Bull World Health Organ
; 99(2): 92-101, 2021 Feb 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1261335
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate how public perceptions and trust in government communications affected the adoption of protective behaviour in Singapore during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.METHODS:
We launched our community-based cohort to assess public perceptions of infectious disease outbreaks in mid-2019. After the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Singapore on 23 January, we launched a series of seven COVID-19 surveys to both existing and regularly enrolled new participants every 2 weeks. As well as sociodemographic properties of the participants, we recorded changing responses to judge awareness of the situation, trust in various information sources and perceived risk. We used multivariable logistic regression models to evaluate associations with perceptions of risk and self-reported adopted frequencies of protective behaviour.FINDINGS:
Our cohort of 633 participants provided 2857 unique responses during the seven COVID-19 surveys. Most agreed or strongly agreed that information from official government sources (99.1%; 528/533) and Singapore-based news agencies (97.9%; 522/533) was trustworthy. Trust in government communication was significantly associated with higher perceived threat (odds ratio, OR 2.2; 95% confidence interval, CI 1.6-3.0), but inversely associated with perceived risk of infection (OR 0.6; 95% CI 0.4-0.8) or risk of death if infected (OR 0.6; 95% CI 0.4-0.9). Trust in government communication was also associated with a greater likelihood of adopting protective behaviour.CONCLUSION:
Our findings show that trust is a vital commodity when managing an evolving outbreak. Our repeated surveys provided real-time feedback, allowing an improved understanding of the interplay between perceptions, trust and behaviour.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Public Opinion
/
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Trust
/
COVID-19
/
Government
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Bull World Health Organ
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Blt.20.269142
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