Mental associations with COVID-19 and how they relate with self-reported protective behaviors: A national survey in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

To understand novel diseases, patients may draw comparisons to other diseases.

Objective

We examined whether mentally associating specific diseases with COVID-19 was related to self-reported protective behaviors early in the pandemic.

Methods

In March 2020, a national sample of 6534 U.S. adults listed diseases that came to mind when thinking of COVID-19. They self-reported protective behaviors, demographics, and COVID-19 risk perceptions.

Results

Participants associated COVID-19 with common infectious diseases like seasonal influenza (59%), common cold (11%), and pneumonia (10%), or emergent infectious diseases like pandemic influenza (28%), SARS/MERS (27%), and Ebola (14%). Seasonal influenza was most commonly mentioned, in all demographic groups. Pa

SUBMITTER: Bruine de Bruin W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7937328 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature