Analysis of Risk Perceptions and Related Factors Concerning COVID-19 Epidemic in Chongqing, China

Objective To assess perceptions of risk and related factors concerning COVID-19 epidemic among residents in Chongqing city, China. Methods With convenience sampling, a web questionnaire survey was conducted among 476 residents living in Chongqing on February 13rd to 14th in 2020, when citizens just started to get back to work. Results Residents' estimated perceived risks were (4.63 +/- 0.57), (4.19 +/- 0.76), (3.23 +/- 0.91) and (2.29 +/- 0.96) for the infectivity, pathogenicity, lethality and self-rated infection possibility of COVID-19, respectively. Females (OR = 4.234), people with income >= 2000 yuan (2000-4999 yuan: OR = 5.052, 5000-9999 yuan: OR = 4.301, >= 10,000 yuan: OR = 23.459), the married status (OR = 1.811), the divorced status, widows or widowers (OR = 3.038), people living with families including children (OR = 5.085) or chronic patients (OR = 2.423) had a higher perceived risk level, as well as people who used free media websites (OR = 1.756), community workers (OR = 4.064) or community information platforms (OR = 2.235) as main media information sources. The perceived risk increased by 4.9% for every one-year increase of age. People who used WeChat contacts (OR = 0.196) as the main media information source, reported a lower perceived risk. Conclusion Residents reported a high level of risk perception towards COVID-19 in Chongqing and it was impacted by the population demographic characteristics. Media information sources, including community information platforms and community workers may cause the increase of public risk perceptions.

Automated summary

The study found that residents in Chongqing had a high level of risk perception towards COVID-19, which was influenced by demographic characteristics and media information sources such as community platforms and workers.