Relationship Between Risk Perception, Social Support, and Mental Health Among General Chinese Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) pandemic is a global public health challenge and provides an opportunity to investigate the unclear relationship between risk perception, social support, and mental health. This study aims to examine the association between risk perception and mental health while...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Risk management and healthcare policy 2021-01, Vol.14, p.1843-1853
Main Authors: Liu, Chengbin, Huang, Ning, Fu, Mingqi, Zhang, Hui, Feng, Xing Lin, Guo, Jing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
China
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
depressive symptoms
Epidemics
Health aspects
Health promotion
Hypotheses
Internet access
Medical research
Mental disorders
Mental health
Original Research
Pandemics
Perception
Perceptions
Post traumatic stress disorder
ptsd symptoms
Public health
Questionnaires
risk perception
Sample size
sars-cov-2
Social aspects
Social networks
Social support
Threats
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Summary:The Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) pandemic is a global public health challenge and provides an opportunity to investigate the unclear relationship between risk perception, social support, and mental health. This study aims to examine the association between risk perception and mental health while taking social support as a moderator. An online cross-sectional study recruiting 2993 participants was conducted in China, from 1st to 10th, February 2020. The relationship between risk perception, social support, and mental health was examined using multivariate linear regression analyses. This study indicated that risk perception was associated with a higher level of mental health symptoms. The subscale "Perceived uncontrollability" seemed to present a stronger correlation with depressive symptoms (Beta=0.306) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Beta=0.318) than the subscale "Perceived Severity" did. Moreover, social support moderated the relationship between perceived uncontrollability and mental health symptoms. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to design mental health strategies and programs from a risk perception perspective (more mental health strategies should be delivered to build reasonable risk perception), while social support from family and friends may be protective to against depressive symptoms and PTSD symptoms. There is a demand for mental health intervention from a risk perception perspective.
ISSN:1179-1594
1179-1594
DOI:10.2147/rmhp.s302521