Rubin, G James;
Smith, Louise E;
Amlôt, Richard;
Fear, Nicola T;
Potts, Henry WW;
Michie, Susan;
(2024)
The changing nature of worry about COVID-19 among the English public: a
secondary analysis of 73 national, crosssectional surveys, January 2020 to
April 2022.
BMJ Open
, 14
(10)
, Article e088027. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088027.
Preview |
Text
The changing nature of worry about COVID-19 among the English public a secondary analysis of 73 national, cross-sectional su.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Objectives: To investigate worry about COVID-19 during the pandemic, and whether worry was associated with phase of the pandemic, COVID-19 death and incidence rates, Government interventions (including lockdown and advertising), age, being clinically at-risk, ethnicity, thinking that the Government had put the right measures in place, perceived risk of COVID-19 to self and the UK, and perceived severity of COVID-19. // Design: Secondary analysis of a series of cross-sectional surveys. // Setting: 73 online surveys conducted for the English Department of Health and Social Care between 28 January 2020 and 13 April 2022. // Participants: Participants were people aged 16 years and over living in the UK (approximately 2000 per wave). // Primary outcome measures: Our primary outcome was self-reported worry about COVID-19. // Results: Rates of being ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ worried changed over time. Worry increased as infection rates increased and fell during lockdowns, but the association became less obvious over time. Respondents aged 60 years and over were less likely to be worried after the launch of the vaccination campaign, while those who were clinically at-risk or from a minoritised ethnic community were more likely to be worried. Higher worry was associated with higher perceived risk, and higher perceived severity of COVID-19. There was no evidence for an association with agreeing that the Government was putting the right measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The launch of graphic Government advertising campaigns about COVID-19 had no noticeable effect on levels of public worry. // Conclusions: In future infectious disease outbreaks, spikes in worry may attenuate over time, although some sections of society may experience higher anxiety than others.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The changing nature of worry about COVID-19 among the English public: a secondary analysis of 73 national, crosssectional surveys, January 2020 to April 2022 |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088027 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088027 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| 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 Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics 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 Health Informatics > CHIME |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10219192 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
