Texas households’ expected responses to seasonal influenza

Abstract

This study examined people’s expected responses to seasonal influenza in terms of risk perceptions from different exposure paths and protective actions that could avoid illness. The data reveal significant differences among ten exposure paths and seven protective actions. Among the exposure paths, drinking from an infected person's glass without washing it received the highest hazard rating, whereas walking past that person on the sidewalk got the lowest rating. With regard to the seven protective actions, frequent hand washing had the highest ratings on protective efficacy and utility for other purposes and was the most strongly expected to be implemented, whereas wearing a surgical mask had the lowest ratings on these attributes and was least strongly expected to be implemented. As predicted, female gender and past influenza experience had significant positive correlations with hazard-related attributes and behavioral expectations but had nonsignificant correlations with resource-related attributes. This study’s findings suggest ways of enhancing the effectiveness of risk communication for seasonal influenza and other respiratory infectious diseases.