Influenza pandemic preparedness: motivation for protection among small and medium businesses in Australia

Watkins, Rochelle E; Cooke, Feonagh C; Donovan, Robert J; MacIntyre, C Raina; Itzwerth, Ralf; Plant, Aileen J

The perceived need for help was most strongly associated with the perceived risk of pandemic influenza to the business, with participants who perceived the risk of a pandemic to the business as moderate or high being approximately 3 times more likely to report needing help to prepare. State was a significant independent predictor of the perceived need for help, with businesses in NSW more likely to report needing help than those in WA. The perceived need for help was also significantly associated with industry type, with businesses in the property and business services and retail trade sectors being significantly less likely to need help than other service sector businesses. Industry type was not significantly associated with perceptions about the risk or severity of a pandemic, but was significantly associated with coping appraisal (χ 2 = 8.4, p = 0.04), with 58 per cent of retailers unable to think of steps to protect their business as opposed to 35 per cent of other service sector businesses and 30 per cent of production and manufacturing businesses. The presence of a specific plan for pandemic influenza was significantly and independently associated with both perceived severity of a pandemic and coping appraisal. Participants who believed that 30 per cent or more of the local community would become sick were over 9 times more likely to have a plan, and participants who were able to identify steps that could be taken to protect their business were over 8 times more likely to have a plan for pandemic influenza.