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. 2020 Nov;25(4):883-888.
doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12438. Epub 2020 Jun 10.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) fatality risk perception of US adult residents in March and April 2020

Christoph Niepel  1 , Dirk Kranz  2 , Francesca Borgonovi  3 , Valentin Emslander  1 , Samuel Greiff  1
Affiliations

The coronavirus (COVID-19) fatality risk perception of US adult residents in March and April 2020

Christoph Niepel et al. Br J Health Psychol. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

The study compares empirical results on the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (causing COVID-19) fatality risk perception of US adult residents stratified for age, gender, and race in mid-March 2020 (N1 = 1,182) and mid-April 2020 (N2 = 953). While the fatality risk perception has increased from March 2020 to April 2020, our findings suggest that many US adult residents severely underestimated their absolute and relative fatality risk (i.e., differentiated for subgroups defined by pre-existing medical conditions and age) at both time points compared to current epidemiological figures. These results are worrying because risk perception, as our study indicates, relates to actual or intended health-protective behaviour that can reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus SARS-CoV-2; health-protective behaviour; repeated cross-sectional design; risk perception.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Perceived absolute and relative SARS‐CoV‐2 fatality risk perception in US adult residents for March and April 2020.
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