{"title":"Risk perception research informing recommendations for COVID-19 preventative health measures and public messaging.","authors":"Paul A Maguire, Jeffrey C L Looi","doi":"10.1177/10398562221117060","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>To provide a commentary on evidence-based recommendations for COVID-19 pandemic risk communication for more effective public health measures.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>We apply the principles of risk communication to address key issues in the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Risk perception and communication research usefully informs preventative health education and public messaging during disease outbreaks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, especially for those with severe mental illness.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Key recommendations for pandemic public health risk communication are: clear, timely and balanced information from a reputable source; accurate and non-sensationalised depiction of infection, morbidity and mortality rates; awareness of fear as a powerful motivator for adoption of protective measures against the causative virus; promotion of self-efficacy and sense of control in terms of mitigating the health threats associated with a pandemic; correction of mis- and disinformation regarding the pandemic and associated protective measures; and messaging may need to be modified for people with a mental illness to avoid exacerbations of depressive and anxiety symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":347122,"journal":{"name":"Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists","volume":" ","pages":"601-603"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9361031/pdf/10.1177_10398562221117060.pdf","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562221117060","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/8/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Objective: To provide a commentary on evidence-based recommendations for COVID-19 pandemic risk communication for more effective public health measures.
Method: We apply the principles of risk communication to address key issues in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results: Risk perception and communication research usefully informs preventative health education and public messaging during disease outbreaks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, especially for those with severe mental illness.
Conclusions: Key recommendations for pandemic public health risk communication are: clear, timely and balanced information from a reputable source; accurate and non-sensationalised depiction of infection, morbidity and mortality rates; awareness of fear as a powerful motivator for adoption of protective measures against the causative virus; promotion of self-efficacy and sense of control in terms of mitigating the health threats associated with a pandemic; correction of mis- and disinformation regarding the pandemic and associated protective measures; and messaging may need to be modified for people with a mental illness to avoid exacerbations of depressive and anxiety symptoms.