Abstract
The 2014–2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic outbreak reached over 28,000 cases and totaled over 11,000 deaths with 4 confirmed cases in the United States, which sparked widespread public concern about nationwide spread of EVD. Concern was elevated in locations connected to the infected people, which included Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. This threat of exposure enabled a unique opportunity to assess self-reported knowledge about EVD, risk perception, and behavior response to EVD. Unlike existing studies, which often survey one point in time across geographically coarse scales, this work offers insights into the geographic context of risk perception and behavior at finer-grained spatial and temporal scales. We report results from 3138 respondents comprised of faculty, staff, and students at two time periods. Results reveal increased EVD knowledge, decreased risk perception, and reduction in protective actions during this time. Faculty had the lowest perceived risk, followed by staff and then students, suggesting the role of education in this outcome. However, the most impactful result is the proof-of-concept for this study design to be deployed in the midst of a disease outbreak. Such geographically targeted and temporally dynamic surveys distributed during an outbreak can show where and when risk perception and behaviors change, which can provide policy-makers with rapid results that can shape intervention practices.
Highlights
During the fall of 2014, four Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) events in the United States caused both national and localized concern [1,2,3]
We report results from 3138 respondents from Kent State University (KSU)
Much of the existing knowledge is geographically coarse in scale, such as national or statewide surveys and sampled responses for only one time period [13,14,15,16]
Summary
During the fall of 2014, four Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) events in the United States caused both national and localized concern [1,2,3]. To the authors’ knowledge, few attempts were made to surveil local “at risk” populations from any of these events Such contemporaneous insight could help shed light on the link between perceptions and protective actions within a major epidemic [4,5]. Perception of risk, such as potential exposure to EVD, may motivate individuals to modify their behavior and take protective actions to try to reduce risk of infection [4,5,6]. The adoption of preventative actions can be difficult to capture in the midst of an epidemic
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