The impact of COVID-19 infection experience on risk perception and preventive behaviour: A cohort study
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Background
Understanding how individuals perceive and respond to their own infectious disease experiences offers valuable opportunities to develop effective risk communication strategies. This study examined whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection experience enhances preventive behaviour, with risk perception acting as a mediating factor.
Methods
The study included participants aged ≥18 years residing in Japan, enrolled in a 30-wave cohort study conducted from January 2020 to March 2024. Using propensity score matching, 135 pairs of participants with and without infection were extracted, adjusting for dread and unknown risk perception, preventive behaviours (e.g., hand disinfection and mask-wearing), sociopsychological variables, and individual attributes. Comparisons of risk perception and preventive behaviour were made between groups post-infection experience, and mediation analysis was conducted to test whether risk perception mediated the effect of infection experience on preventive behaviour.
Results
No significant differences in covariates were observed between groups prior to infection experience, except gender. Following infection experience, participants in the infection group reported significantly higher scores for one item of unknown risk perception and a greater proportion of mask-wearing, even after adjusting for gender. The indirect effect of infection experience on mask-wearing, mediated by the unknown risk perception item, was significant.
Conclusion
COVID-19 infection experience increased perceptions of unknowable exposure, which in turn promoted mask-wearing behaviour. Incorporating insights from personal infection experiences into public health messaging may enhance risk perception and promote preventive behaviour among non-infected individuals, offering a novel approach to infection control at the population level.
