Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jun 12:12:1323543.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1323543. eCollection 2024.

Exploring the Singapore general population's trust in COVID-19 information from different sources and its association with perceived risk of infection during the pandemic

Fiona Devi  1 , Bernard Chin Wee Tan  1 , Saleha Shafie  1 , Yun Jue Zhang  1 , Shazana Shahwan  1 , Pratika Satghare  1 , Siow Ann Chong  1 , Mythily Subramaniam  1
Affiliations

Exploring the Singapore general population's trust in COVID-19 information from different sources and its association with perceived risk of infection during the pandemic

Fiona Devi et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The degree of public trust in the government's competence is crucial in preventing the spread of misinformation and reducing psychological distress during a pandemic. The study aimed to (i) explore the trust in COVID-19 information from different sources and trust in the ability of the World Health Organization (WHO), government departments and related institutions in handling the epidemic in Singapore and (ii) its association with perceived risk of infection among Singapore residents.

Methods: A total of 1,129 participants (aged 21 and above) were recruited from a cross-sectional study examining the well-being and resilience of Singapore's population between May 2020 to June 2021. Trust in COVID-19 information from different sources was measured on a 10-point scale and an ordinal 7-point scale was used for perceived risk of infection. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression model were conducted.

Results: 85.5% reported high trust in COVID-19 information from the government and their ability in handling the pandemic. Participants also reported high trust in COVID-19 information from local public health or infectious disease experts (84.4%) and traditional media (77.2%). Low trust in the ability of government departments and related institutions was associated with higher future (1 month) perceived risk of infection (OR: 5.7, 95% CI 1.02-32.45) and low trust in social media was associated with higher current perceived risk of infection (OR: 2.4, 95% CI 1.09-5.24).

Discussion: The present study provided insight on the level of trust on COVID-19 information from different sources and its associated perceived risks of infection. Future qualitative studies are recommended to facilitate better understanding of public trust and identify strategies for how it can be effectively addressed to support future public health responses.

Keywords: Asia; COVID-19; multi-ethnic; perceived risks of infection; trust.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Siegrist M, Zingg A. The role of public trust during pandemics implications for crisis communication. Eur Psychol. (2014) 19:23–32. doi: 10.1027/1016-9040/a000169 - DOI
    1. Xu T. Media, Trust in Government, and risk perception of COVID-19 in the early stage of pandemic: an analysis based on moderating effect. Healthcare. (2021) 9:1597. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9111597, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abdelrahman M. Personality traits, risk perception, and protective behaviors of Arab residents of Qatar during the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Ment Health Addict. (2020) 20:237–48. doi: 10.1007/s11469-020-00352-7, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wong CM, Jensen O. The paradox of trust: perceived risk and public compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. J Risk Res. (2020) 23:1021–30. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2020.1756386 - DOI
    1. Woo JJ. Pandemic, politics and pandemonium: political capacity and Singapore’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Policy Design Pract. (2020) 4:79–93. doi: 10.1080/25741292.2020.1835212 - DOI