Survey on behavior changes among the Japanese general public in the wake of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic
Principle investigator: Kohta Suzuki (Aichi Medical University)
Collaborators:
Aya Goto (Fukushima Medical University)
Chihaya Koriyama (Kagoshima University)
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the general public in Japan have perceived this disease and responded to it in a certain way. This study aims to understand how they have changed the perception of the disease and daily practices accordingly in the course of the pandemic. It investigates the potential associations between behavioral changes of the public and their use of health information. It is the ultimate goal of the study that we propose a practical health communication strategy for the prevention of current and future health crises.
We are making an anonymous mail survey which randomly targets residents in Fukushima, Tokyo, Aichi and Kagoshima. In this survey, we ask questions to know their attitude towards COVID-19, prevention practices, information sources including social media platforms. By using these survey items, we evaluate their knowledge of COVID-19 as well as their perception of health risks and level health literacy. In the hope that this study can contribute to disease prevention, we plan to expand this survey to neighboring countries in Asia.
(Project researcher: Yohei Koyama)