Government trust,perceptions of COVID-19 and behaviour change: cohort surveys,Singapore |
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| Authors: | Vanessa W Lim Rachel L Lim Yi Roe Tan Alexius SE Soh Mei Xuan Tan Norhudah Bte Othman Sue Borame Dickens Tun-Linn Thein May O Lwin Rick Twee-Hee Ong Yee-Sin Leo Vernon J Lee Mark IC Chen |
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| Institution: | aInfectious Disease Research and Training Office, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jln Tan Tock Seng, Singapore 308442, Singapore.;bSaw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.;cWee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.;dCommunicable Diseases Division, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore. |
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| Abstract: | ObjectiveTo 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.MethodsWe 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.FindingsOur 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.ConclusionOur 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. |
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