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. 2022 Jul 1;93(3):e2022262.
doi: 10.23750/abm.v93i3.12262.

COVID-19: opinions and behavior of Italian general population during the first epidemic phase

Cristina Genovese  1 , Vincenza La Fauci  2 , Angela Di Pietro  3 , Giuseppe Trimarchi  4 , Anna Odone  5 , Alessandra Casuccio  6 , Claudio Costantino  7 , Vincenzo Restivo  8 , Mariapia Fantini  9 , Davide Gori  10 , Antonio Azara  11 , Giovanna Deiana  12 , Silvana Castaldi  13 , Elena Righi  14 , Lucia Palandri  15 , Giovanni Panciroli  16 , Aida Bianco  17 , Francesca Licata  18 , Sofia Cosentino  19 , Antonio Mistretta  20 , Marina Marranzano  21 , Rosalia Ragusa  22 , Giovanni Gabutti  23 , Armando Stefanati  24 , Rosa Prato  25 , Francesca Fortunato  26 , Domenico Martinelli  27 , Giancarlo Icardi  28 , Donatella Panatto  29 , Daniela Amicizia  30 , Leila Fabiani  31 , Annalucia Moretti  32 , Damiana Di Risio  33 , Roberta Siliquini  34 , Gianluca Voglino  35 , Fabrizio Bert  36 , Chiara Lorini  37 , Guglielmo Bonaccorsi  38 , Ida Torre  39 , Francesca Pennino  40 , Maria Pavia  41 , Gabriella Di Giuseppe  42 , Andrea Paolantonio  43 , Paolo Villari  44 , Carolina Marzuillo  45 , Gabriele Messina  46 , Cesare Rivieri  47 , Nicola Nante  48 , Silvia Majori  49 , Stefano Tardivo  50 , Francesca Moretti  51 , Smeralda D'Amato  52 , Francesco Mazzitelli  53 , Ioselita Giunta  54 , Daniela Lo Giudice  55 , Giuseppe Pantò  56 , Carlo Signorelli  57 , Raffaele Squeri  58
Affiliations

COVID-19: opinions and behavior of Italian general population during the first epidemic phase

Cristina Genovese et al. Acta Biomed. .

Abstract

Background and aim: On January 9, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Chinese health authorities had identified a new coronavirus strain never before isolated in humans, the 2019-nCoV later redefined SARS-CoV-2, that still today represent a public health problem. The present survey started on 10 February 2020 with the aim of a) assessing the risk perception in healthcare workers and young students, following the evolution of attitudes, perception and knowledge over time, b) provide useful information to the general population during survey.

Results: A study sample consisting of 4116 Italian individuals of both sexes was enrolled. High levels of risk perception, low perception of self-efficacy and low levels of knowledge scores (24.55 ± 5.76 SD) were obtained indicating the need for continuous population monitoring as well as further communication strategies carried out at institution levels.

Conclusion: The results of the present study could help public health authorities in carrying out informative campaigns for general population and could be an important tool in evaluating public knowledge and misperceptions during the management of the COVID-19. (www.actabiomedica.it).

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Conflict of interest statement

Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

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