Abstract
Health information-seeking behavior provides a variety of benefits, such as reducing knowledge gaps and educating individuals outside the medical office. This study aimed at evaluating if different sources used to gather information on COVID-19 could affect the willingness to undergo dental appointments. An anonymous survey was posted on social media. The 1003 respondents used several channels of communication, clearly distinguishing reliable from unreliable ones. Multiple logistic regression estimated the effect of different information channels on the probability of being strongly influenced by COVID-19 in accessing upcoming dental appointments. Newspapers were the most-used channel of information (61.2%), blogs and forums the least used (11.2%). Overall, the more an individual was informed, the higher was the risk of missing upcoming dental care appointments (OR 2.05, CI 1.45–2.90, p < 0.001). The two most reliable channels of communication were identified in journals/websites of medicine and healthcare professionals. Women proved to be more active in gathering information and relying on less secure but more personal channels, such as social media and friends and family, thus having an increased risk of being influenced by COVID-19 information regarding upcoming dental care appointments (OR 3.62, CI 0.85–15.52, p < 0.1 and OR 1.60, CI 1.00–2.58, p < 0.1, respectively). Social media should have a greater presence on the side of medical service providers to avoid distortions of information and fake news that ultimately cause fear among citizens and compromise their health. Healthcare professionals and institutions should adapt their communication channels based on the audience they want to address to optimize the education and information of the final users.
Highlights
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has posed a challenge to healthcare systems across the world, and its rapidly evolving spread has become a global health crisis
The presented results showed that communication tools affect the risk of being influenced by fear of contagion by COVID-19 as regards accessing dental care, and that there are demographic and especially gender differences that influence the risk perception over future visits at the dentist
COVID-19 and the perceived risk of infection: this finding is consistent with previous studies on the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) [24,25], demonstrating that
Summary
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has posed a challenge to healthcare systems across the world, and its rapidly evolving spread has become a global health crisis. In this scenario, Italy has been severely affected by COVID-19, registering more than 4.5 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic and reaching more than 130,000 deaths. Soon after the declaration of the pandemic by the WHO, national governments started issuing advisories and regulations to their people with the aim of restricting the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Governments used print media, mass media, and the web to inform the community. The communities themselves used a variety of tools and
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