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. 2025 Jan 23:153:e29.
doi: 10.1017/S0950268825000068.

Lyme borreliosis awareness and risk perception: a survey in 20 European countries

L Hannah Gould  1 , Emily Colby  1 , Andreas Pilz  2 , Gordon Brestrich  3 , Kate Halsby  4 , Patrick H Kelly  1 , Jennifer C Moisi  5 , James H Stark  6
Affiliations

Lyme borreliosis awareness and risk perception: a survey in 20 European countries

L Hannah Gould et al. Epidemiol Infect. .

Abstract

An estimated 129000 cases of Lyme borreliosis (LB) are reported annually in Europe. In 2022, we conducted a representative web-based survey of 28034 persons aged 18-65 years old in 20 European countries to describe tick and LB risk exposures and perceptions. Nearly all respondents (95.0%) were aware of ticks (range, 90.4% in the UK to 98.8% in Estonia). Among those aware of ticks, most (85.1%) were also aware of LB (range, 70.3% in Switzerland to 97.0% in Lithuania). Overall, 8.3% of respondents reported a past LB diagnosis (range, 3.0% in Romania to 13.8% in Sweden). Respondents spent a weekly median of 7 (interquartile range [IQR] 3-14) hours in green spaces at home and 9 (IQR 4-16) hours away from home during April-November. The most common tick prevention measures always or often used were checking for ticks (44.8%) and wearing protective clothing (40.2%). This large multicountry survey provided needed data that can be used to design targeted LB prevention programmes in Europe.

Keywords: Lyme borreliosis; Lyme disease; knowledge, attitudes, and practices; survey; ticks.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors are employees of Pfizer and may hold stock or stock options.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Twenty countries included in multi-country Lyme borreliosis survey in Europe, 2022; the number of respondents (n) and the survey response rate (%) in each country is noted below the country name.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Reported tick and Lyme borreliosis (LB) awareness, stratified by country, as reported in a multi-country Lyme borreliosis survey in Europe, 2022.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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