Abstract
BackgroundKorea failed in its risk communication during the early stage of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak; consequently, it faced difficulties in managing MERS, while disease-related worry increased. Disease-related worry can help disease prevention and management, but can also have a detrimental effect. This study measured the overall level of disease-related worry during the MERS outbreak period in Korea and the influencing factors and levels of disease-related worry during key outbreak periods.MethodsThe cross-sectional survey included 1,000 adults who resided in Korea. An ordinal logistic regression was performed for the overall level of MERS-related worry, and influencing factors of worry were analyzed. A reliability test was performed on the levels of MERS-related worry during key outbreak periods.ResultsThe overall level of MERS-related worry was 2.44. Multivariate analysis revealed that women and respondents w very poor subjective health status had higher levels of worry. Respondents with very high stress in daily life had higher levels of worry than those who reported having little stress. The reliability test results on MERS-related worry scores during key outbreak periods showed consistent scores during each period.ConclusionLevel of worry increased in cases having higher perceived susceptibility and greater trust in informal information, while initial stage of outbreak was closely associated with that at later stages. These findings suggest the importance of managing the level of worry by providing timely and accurate disease-related information during the initial stage of disease outbreak.
Highlights
Korea recently experienced an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)
According to the criteria set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the MERS pandemic ended by late December; the Korean government declared late July as the end of the pandemic
This study analyzed factors associated with level of worry during the MERS outbreak period
Summary
Korea recently experienced an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), 186 people were definitively diagnosed with MERS between May 20 and November 30, 2015; of those, 38 died from the disease. The people diagnosed with MERS consisted of 82 hospital patients, 65 family member or visitors, and 39 hospital workers. Simulating the disease spread process during the period of MERS by using a mathematical model, the result was 4.42 R0 value that indicating infectivity [2]. Korea failed in its risk communication during the early stage of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak; it faced difficulties in managing MERS, while disease-related worry increased. Disease-related worry can help disease prevention and management, but can have a detrimental effect. This study measured the overall level of disease-related worry during the MERS outbreak period in Korea and the influencing factors and levels of disease-related worry during key outbreak periods
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