The role of institutional trust in preventive and treatment-seeking behaviors during the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak among residents in Hubei, China

Li Ping Wong; Qun hong Wu; Xi Chen; Zhuo Chen; Haridah Alias; Mingwang Shen; Jing cen Hu; Shiwei Duan; Jin jie Zhang; Liyuan Han

quarantine (13.8%, n = 550) expressed an unwillingness to seek hospital treatment. 25 Similarly, being under quarantine (OR = 2.36, 95% CI 1.80 to 3.09) and having a high 26 institutional trust score (OR = 2.20, 95% CI 1.96 to 2.49) were two strong significant 27 determinants of hospital treatment-seeking. 28 Interpretation The results of this study suggest that institutional trust is an important 29 factor influencing adequate preventive behavior and seeking formal medical care 30 during an outbreak. In view of the 2019-nCoV being highly pathogenic and extremely 31 contagious, our findings also underscore the importance of public health intervention 32 to reach individuals with poor adherence to preventive measures and who are reluctant 33 to seek treatment at formal health services. We searched PubMed on January 28, 2020, for articles that describe the trust, 48 preventive practices and health-seeking behaviors related to the 2019 novel coronavirus 49 (2019-nCoV) in China, using the search terms "novel coronavirus," "institutional trust," 50 "behavioral change," "protective behaviors," and "treatment-seeking" with no The questionnaire was developed in English and translated into Chinese. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.