UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Perceived risk factors for severe Covid-19 symptoms and their association with health behaviours: Findings from the HEBECO study

Herbec, A; Brown, J; Jackson, S; Kale, D; Zatonśki, M; Garnett, C; Chadborn, T; (2020) Perceived risk factors for severe Covid-19 symptoms and their association with health behaviours: Findings from the HEBECO study. PsyArXiv Preprints: Ithaca, NY, USA. Green open access

[thumbnail of HEBECO Risk Perceptions Preprint.pdf]
Preview
Text
HEBECO Risk Perceptions Preprint.pdf - Published Version

Download (434kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: There remains uncertainty about Covid-19 risk factors. We examined UK adults’ risk perceptions for severe Covid-19 symptoms and whether engaging in concurrent health behaviours is associated with risk perceptions. / Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the HEBECO study where 2206 UK adults classified potential factors (age 70+, ethnic minority, medical comorbidities, vaping, smoking cigarettes, alcohol drinking, regular physical activity, being overweight, eating unhealthy foods, using nicotine replacement therapy – NRT, lower income, poor housing, being a keyworker) as either increasing, decreasing, or having no impact on severe Covid-19 symptoms. Logistic regressions examined whether engaging in health behaviours was associated with risk perceptions after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, health conditions and other behaviours. / Results: The great majority (89-99%) of adults classified age 70+, having comorbidities, being a key worker, overweight, and from an ethnic minority as increasing the risk. People were less sure about alcohol drinking, vaping, and nicotine replacement therapy use (17.4-29.5% responding ‘don’t know’). Relative to those who did not, those who smoked tobacco, vaped and consumed alcohol had significantly (all p<0.015) higher odds (aORs=1.58 to 5.80) for classifying these behaviours as ‘no impact’ or ‘decreasing risk’, and lower odds (aORs=.25 to .72) for classifying as ‘increasing risk’. Similarly, eating more fruit and vegetables was associated with classifying unhealthy diet as ‘increasing risk’ (aOR=1.37,1.12-1.69), and exercising more with classifying regular physical activity as ‘decreasing risk’ (aOR=2.42,1.75-3.34). / Conclusions: Risk perceptions for severe Covid-19 symptoms were lower for adults’ own health behaviours, evidencing optimism bias. / Implications: These risk perceptions may form barriers to changing one’s own unhealthy behaviours or make one less responsive to interventions that refer to the risk of Covid-19 as a motivating factor. Thus, in some cases risk perceptions could help sustain unhealthy behaviours and exacerbate inequalities in health behaviours and outcomes.

Type: Working / discussion paper
Title: Perceived risk factors for severe Covid-19 symptoms and their association with health behaviours: Findings from the HEBECO study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/xj5z7
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xj5z7
Language: English
Additional information: This is an Open Access paper published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: covid-19, risk perceptions, health behaviours, cross-sectional, optimism bias
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10118407
Downloads since deposit
62Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item