Association between trust in COVID-19 information sources and engaging in infection prevention behaviors in Japan: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Objective: We examined changes in people's trust in information sources in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic over the course of 1 year and investigated longitudinal associations between trust in such sources and engaging in infection prevention behaviors.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal survey of Japanese populations under a declared state of emergency at two time points, August 2020 and August 2021. We surveyed sociodemographic data, seven Trust in COVID-19 information sources and six COVID-19 preventive behaviors.

Results: In all, 784 participants completed the two surveys. Physicians were the most consistently trusted information source over the 1-year period. We identified three preventive behaviors that were positively associated with trust in physicians as an information source (social distancing, wearing masks, and washing hands with soap), four preventive behaviors that were positively associated with trusting infected patients (social distancing, using ventilation, wearing masks, and using hand sanitizer), and one preventative behavior that was negatively associated with trust in government (avoiding closed spaces).

Conclusion: In the ongoing pandemic, information from physicians and patients may encourage people to engage in long-term preventive behaviors.

Practice implications: Physicians and patients should be promoted as trusted and behavior influencing sources of information during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Health communication; Pandemic; Preventive behavior; Trust.

Fig. 1

Changes in trust in information sources (n = 784). Error bars represent ± 1.96 standard errors the 95% Confidence Interval. Asterisks indicate significant differences by paired t-test between survey time points, * p < 0.05, * * p < 0.001.