Personal worries about COVID-19 transmission among Vietnamese adults during the COVID-19 pandemic
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Personal worries about COVID-19 transmission can have significant health effects on both physical and mental health. The project objectives were to determine the prevalence and factors influencing personal worries about COVID-19 transmission among adult Vietnamese men and women in 2021.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2021 among adults living in Hanoi City and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in which a total of 447 individuals completed the questionnaire survey. A 5-point Likert scale was used to measure whether survey respondents were worried about being infected with COVID-19, whether family/friends will catch COVID-19, and about spreading the virus to others. The rating scores were then used to categorize study participants as “worried” (score 1-3) and “not worried” (score 4-5).
Results: The study found that slightly more than two-thirds of the study sample were worried about being infected with COVID-19. Additionally, approximately four in every five respondents were worried that family/friends would catch COVID-19 or were concerned about spreading the virus to others. Individuals who did not engage in outdoor activities during the prior two weeks exhibited higher worry about being infected with COVID-19 compare to whom did. People living with someone at high risk for COVID-19 and worrying about losing their home had concerns that family/friends would catch COVID-19 more than whom did not. Men and individuals without a medical history of chronic disease and health insurance were less likely to express worries about spreading the COVID-19 virus to others compared to women and those with these chronic conditions and with insurance.
Conclusion: Our findings emphasize the interplay between individual risk perception and broader social determinants of health in shaping attitudes and behaviors related to COVID-19 prevention and control.
Article Details
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
References
2. Wang C, Pan R, Wan X, et al. Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(5):E1729. doi:10.3390/ijerph17051729
3. Hui-Beckman J, Leung DYM, Goleva E. Hand hygiene impact on the skin barrier in health care workers and individuals with atopic dermatitis. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2022;128(1):108-110. doi:10.1016/j.anai.2021.08.007
4. Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine. 2010;7(7):e1000316. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
5. Baum A, Schwartz MD. Admissions to Veterans Affairs Hospitals for Emergency Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA. 2020;324(1):96-99. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.9972
6. Sanchez-Pinto LN, Venable LR, Fahrenbach J, Churpek MM. Comparison of Variable Selection Methods for Clinical Predictive Modeling. Int J Med Inform. 2018;116:10-17. doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2018.05.006
7. Pfefferbaum B, North CS. Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic. N Engl J Med. 2020;383(6):510-512. doi:10.1056/NEJMp2008017
8. Huang Y, Zhao N. Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: a web-based cross-sectional survey. Psychiatry Res. 2020;288:112954. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112954
9. Kontoangelos K, Economou M, Papageorgiou C. Mental Health Effects of COVID-19 Pandemia: A Review of Clinical and Psychological Traits. Psychiatry Investig. 2020;17(6):491-505. doi:10.30773/pi.2020.0161
10. Sakib N, Bhuiyan AKMI, Hossain S, et al. Psychometric Validation of the Bangla Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch Analysis. Int J Ment Health Addict. 2022;20(5):2623-2634. doi:10.1007/s11469-020-00289-x
11. Fitzpatrick KM, Harris C, Drawve G. Fear of COVID-19 and the mental health consequences in America. Psychol Trauma. 2020;12(S1):S17-S21. doi:10.1037/tra0000924
12.Salari N, Hosseinian-Far A, Jalali R, et al. Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Global Health. 2020;16(1):57. doi:10.1186/s12992-020-00589-w
13 Xiong J, Lipsitz O, Nasri F, et al. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: A systematic review. J Affect Disord. 2020;277:55-64. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.001
14 Lee SA, Jobe MC, Mathis AA, Gibbons JA. Incremental validity of coronaphobia: Coronavirus anxiety explains depression, generalized anxiety, and death anxiety. J Anxiety Disord. 2020;74:102268. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102268
15. Cao W, Fang Z, Hou G, et al. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry Res. 2020;287:112934. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934