Media exposure to COVID-19 information, risk perception, social and geographical proximity, and self-rated anxiety in Ch
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Media exposure to COVID-19 information, risk perception, social and geographical proximity, and self-rated anxiety in China Miao Liu, Hongzhong Zhang* and Hui Huang
Abstract Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease that spreads around the world. The lack of effective antiviral drugs and vaccines, along with the relatively high mortality rate and high contagiousness, has raised strong public concerns over COVID-19, especially for people living in the most severely affected areas. This study aimed to clarify the influencing factors for the anxiety level among the Chinese people during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the media exposure to different COVID-19 information. Methods: A total of 4991 respondents were randomly recruited from a national online panel from February 12th, 2020 to February 14th, 2020, a period when the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 10,000 in a single day, with the total cases in China reaching up to 90,000. The relationships between media exposure of COVID-19 information, social and geographical proximity to COVID-19, risk perceptions were assessed using hierarchical ordinary least squares regression analysis. Results: The media exposure to COVID-19 information was differently associated with anxiety. Meanwhile, the anxiety level was found to be high in respondents who personally knew someone infected with COVID-19 or those who living in an area with reported cases. Respondents who perceived more risks also reported a higher level of anxiety. Conclusions: This study highlights the role of media exposure in affecting individuals’ anxiety level during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, it is recommended that government and health professionals are recommended to adopt effective risk communication strategies to protect citizens’ mental health during the pandemic. Keywords: Self-rated anxiety, Media exposure, Social proximity, Geographical proximity, Risk perception
Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease that quickly spreads around the world. The outbreak began in Wuhan in December 2019, since then, more than 90,000 cases have been confirmed in China so far. The newly-found disease has killed over 4700 people in China and 800 thousand people globally till August 2020. According to the World * Correspondence: [email protected] College of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, Xinwai Dajie 5 Hao, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 is related to the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that caused an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002–2003 [1]. The typical symptoms of COVID-19 include cough, fever, and shortness of breath. People who are infected with COVID-19 can transmit the virus to others even when they do not display any symptoms [2]. On January 30th, 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak in a public health emergency of international concern [3]. Due to the high infecti
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