Fear of Infection and the Common Good: COVID-19 and the First Italian Lockdown.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 18(21)2021 Oct 28.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1488570
ABSTRACT
In the first quarter of 2020, Italy became one of the earliest hotspots of COVID-19 infection, and the government imposed a lockdown. During the lockdown, an online survey of 2053 adults was conducted that asked about health behaviors and about the psychological and overall impact of COVID-19. The present study is a secondary analysis of that data. We hypothesized that self-control, higher socio-economic status, existing health conditions, and fear of infection were all inversely related to actions (or intentions) that violated the lockdown (i.e., infractions). Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we found that only the fear of infection significantly dissuaded people from violating lockdown rules. Since it is not practical or ethical to sow a fear of infection, our study indicates that enacting rules and enforcing them firmly and fairly are important tools for containing the infection. This may become more important as vaccines become more widely available and people lose their fear of infection.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Communicable Disease Control
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Qualitative research
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijerph182111341
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