This article presents an introduction to the Health Belief Model (HBM). The HBM states that the perception of a personal health behavior threat is influenced by at least three factors: general health values, interest and concern about health; specific beliefs about vulnerability to a particular health threat; and beliefs about the consequences of the health problem. Once an individual perceives a threat to his health and is simultaneously cued to action, if his perceived benefits outweighs his perceived costs, then the individual is most likely to undertake the recommended preventive health action. Key words: health promotion, health belief model, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, self-efficacy. Content available only in Romanian.

Health Belief Model

School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: a rapid systematic review.

Introduction: In the beginning of 2020, an unexpected outbreak due to a new corona virus made the headlines all over the world Exponential growth in the number of those affected makes this virus such a threat The current meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence of underlying disorders in hospitalized COVID-19 patients Methods: A comprehensive systematic search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Web of science, and Google scholar, to find articles published until 15 February 2020 All relevant articles that reported clinical characteristics and epidemiological information of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included in the analysis Results: The data of 76993 patients presented in 10 articles were included in this study According to the meta-analysis, the pooled prevalence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, smoking history and diabetes in people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were estimated as 16 37% (95%CI: 10 15%-23 65%), 12 11% (95%CI 4 40%-22 75%), 7 63% (95%CI 3 83%-12 43%) and 7 87% (95%CI 6 57%-9 28%), respectively Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), malignancy, and chronic kidney disease were among the most prevalent underlying diseases among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, respectively

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Prevalence of Underlying Diseases in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Editor's Choice: Influenza vaccine uptake, COVID-19 vaccination intention and vaccine hesitancy among nurses: A survey.

Various measures were recommended or imposed by the governments to control the spread of COVID-19. Travel behaviors are significantly influenced due to such measures. However, people have various travel needs ranging from grocery shopping to work. This study examines the changes that occurred in travel behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey that included questions on trip purpose, mode choice, distance traveled, and frequency of trips before and during COVID-19. 1203 responses were collected from various countries around the world. Results explained that trip purpose, mode choice, distance traveled, and frequency of trips for the primary travel were significantly different before and during the pandemic. Further, the majority of trips were made for shopping during the pandemic. There was a significant shift from public transport to private transport and non-motorized modes. People placed a higher priority on the pandemic related concerns while choosing a mode during the pandemic as compared to the general concerns. Gender, car ownership, employment status, travel distance, the primary purpose of traveling, and pandemic-related underlying factors during COVID-19 were found to be significant predictors of mode choice during the pandemic. Outcomes of this study could be useful in transport planning and policymaking during pandemics based on the travel needs of people. In particular, government authorities could utilize such knowledge for planning smart and partial lockdowns. Service providers, e.g., taxi companies and retailers, could use such information to better plan their services and operations.

Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Travel Behavior and Mode Preferences

During the early phase of the coronavirus disease epidemic in Hong Kong, 1,715 survey respondents reported high levels of perceived risk, mild anxiety, and adoption of personal-hygiene, travel-avoidance, and social-distancing measures. Widely adopted individual precautionary measures, coupled with early government actions, might slow transmission early in the outbreak.

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Community Responses during Early Phase of COVID-19 Epidemic, Hong Kong.

Background: Community responses are important for outbreak management during the early phase when non-pharmaceutical interventions are the major preventive options. Therefore, this study aims to examine the psychological and behavioral responses of the community during the early phase of the COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong.

Method: A cross-sectional online survey was launched within 36 hours after confirmed COVID-19 cases were first reported. Councilors of all 452 district council constituency areas were approached for survey dissemination. Respondent demographics, anxiety level, risk perception, sources to retrieve COVID-19 information, actual adoption and perceived efficacy of precautionary measures were collected.

Result: Analysis from 1715 complete responses indicated high perceived susceptibility (89%) and high perceived severity (97%). Most respondents were worried about COVID-19 (97%), and had their daily routines disrupted (slightly/greatly: 98%). The anxiety level, measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, was borderline abnormal (9.01). Nearly all respondents were alert to the disease progression (99.5%). The most trusted information sources were doctors (84%), followed by broadcast (57%) and newspaper (54%), but they were not common information sources (doctor: 5%; broadcast: 34%; newspaper: 40%). Only 16% respondents found official websites reliable. Enhanced personal hygiene practices and travel avoidance to China were frequently adopted (>77%) and considered effective (>90%). The adoption of social-distancing measures was lower (39%-88%), and their drivers for greater adoption include: being female (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]:1.27), living in the New Territories (aOR:1.32-1.55), perceived as having good understanding of COVID-19 (aOR:1.84) and being more anxious (aOR:1.07).

Discussion: Risk perception towards COVID-19 in the community was high. Most respondents are alert to the disease progression, and adopt self-protective measures. This study contributes by examining the psycho-behavioral responses of hosts, in addition to the largely studied mechanistic aspects, during the early phase of the current COVID-19 epidemic. The timely psychological and behavioral assessment of the community is useful to inform subsequent interventions and risk communication strategies as the epidemic progresses.

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Henry Ho Hin Chan

Papers

Community Responses during Early Phase of COVID-19 Epidemic, Hong Kong.

Community responses during the early phase of the COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong: risk perception, information exposure and preventive measures

Inferring super-spreading from transmission clusters of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.