Abstract
Infected people are isolated to minimize the spread of pandemic diseases. Therefore, the factors related to self-isolation (SI) should not be neglected, and it is important to investigate the factors leading the infected (or possibly infected) people to choose to self-isolate. In this paper, we tried to show that the theory of planned behavior provides a useful conceptual framework for SI when facing a pandemic risk, and a regression method with Chinese provincial (Guangdong Province) data was applied to investigate how attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) influence SI when facing a pandemic emergency. The results and the robustness tests confirm that ATT, SN, and PBC have a significant positive influence on SI when facing a pandemic emergency. ATT plays the most important role, followed by SN and then PBC. Based on the factors of SI, we found, through theoretical and empirical analyses, at least three important aspects that local governments need to consider to encourage citizens to self-isolate when facing a pandemic.
Highlights
Alongside wars and natural disasters, plagues and epidemic diseases have had the highest death tolls in human history [1]
In terms of economic status, most of the participants were in the middle class
We tried to show that the theory of planned behavior (TPB) provides a useful conceptual framework for SI when facing a pandemic risk
Summary
Alongside wars and natural disasters, plagues and epidemic (pandemic) diseases have had the highest death tolls in human history [1]. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) play an important role in delaying the first wave, reducing its peak and the spreading of new influenza cases across time [3,4] because a pandemic vaccine will not be in place when a pandemic starts. The isolation of infected people has been applied to minimize the spread of pandemic diseases at least since the Old Testament period as an instrument for controlling and quelling the spread of viruses and contamination agents [6]. Isolation is seen as a critical part of public health interventions, as it protects people by separating those who have been infected by communicable diseases from the general population [7]
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