Health Perceptions and Adopted Lifestyle Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-National Survey.
subject: covid-19, Perception, Behavior, nutrition, health behavior, self-report, Lifestyle, real-time, Cross-national survey
description: Social isolation measures are requisites to control viral spread during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, if these measures are implemented for a long period of time, they can result in adverse modification of people's health perceptions and lifestyle behaviors. The aim of this cross-national survey was to address the lack of adequate real-time data on the public response to changes in lifestyle behavior during the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-national web-based survey was administered using Google Forms during the month of April 2020. The settings were China, Japan, Italy, and India. There were two primary outcomes: (1) response to the health scale, defined as perceived health status, a combined score of health-related survey items; and (2) adoption of healthy lifestyle choices, defined as the engagement of the respondent in any two of three healthy lifestyle choices (healthy eating habits, engagement in physical activity or exercise, and reduced substance use). Statistical associations were assessed with linear and logistic regression analyses. We received 3371 responses; 1342 were from India (39.8%), 983 from China (29.2%), 669 from Italy (19.8%), and 377 (11.2%) from Japan. A differential countrywise response was observed toward perceived health status; the highest scores were obtained for Indian respondents (9.43, SD 2.43), and the lowest were obtained for Japanese respondents (6.81, SD 3.44). Similarly, countrywise differences in the magnitude of the influence of perceptions on health status were observed; perception of interpersonal relationships was most pronounced in the comparatively old Italian and Japanese respondents (β=.68 and .60, respectively), and the fear response was most pronounced in Chinese respondents (β=.71). Overall, 78.4% of the respondents adopted at least two healthy lifestyle choices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike health status, the influence of perception of interpersonal relationships on the adoption of lifestyle choices …
creator: Nandi Krishnamurthy Manjunath, Vijaya Majumdar, Antonietta Rozzi, Wang Huiru, Avinash Mishra, Keishin Kimura, Raghuram Nagarathna, Hongasandra Ramarao Nagendra
source: JMIR formative research
date: 2021