Influence of trust on two different risk perceptions as an affective and cognitive dimension during Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak in South Korea: serial cross-sectional surveys

Jang, Won Mo; Kim, Un-Na; Jang, Deok Hyun; Jung, Hyemin; Cho, Sanghyun; Eun, Sang Jun; Lee, Jin Yong

Demographic factors evaluated as respondents' characteristics included gender, age, educational attainment, occupation, perceived household economic status, residential area, and political orientation/party (party identification). Educational attainment was classified into five levels (less than middle school, high school, university, graduate school or higher). Educational attainment was investigated in all surveys except survey 1. Occupation was classified as either unemployed, farming and fishery, self-employed, blue-collar worker, white-collar worker, fulltime housewife, or student. Perceived household economic status was classified into five levels (lower, lower middle, middle, upper middle, upper). Respondents were classified as either metropolitan or non-metropolitan residents; and distinguished by whether they resided in an area where MERS had occurred or not. Party identification was classified based on the support for the president or the political parties. Support or lack of support for the president was assessed using the options of "approval", "disapproval", or "no opinion", while support for the party identification was assessed based on alignment either with the ruling party, with the opposition party, or no opinion.