Preventive behaviors by the level of perceived infection sensitivity during the Korea outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015

Lee, Soon Young; Yang, Hee Jeong; Kim, Gawon; Cheong, Hae-Kwan; Choi, Bo Youl

Regarding health-related characteristics, the non-sensitive group had a higher rate of undesirable health behaviors such as smoking or risky drinking, whereas sensitive groups tended to have more people with poor subjective health conditions or people affected by chronic diseases. It seems that the perception that existing negative health conditions cause an increase in susceptibility to infectious disease holds true, as there was actually increased infection sensitivity. For outbreak-related characteristics, those who were subjects of quarantine or monitoring or those who experienced respiratory symptoms during the outbreak period had higher infection sensitivity, similar to previous results [7] . The Pyeongtaek area, the origin of the outbreak, tended to more residents belonging to the non-sensitive group. It might be due to the relief from the heightened fearful situation since the survey was conducted after two months of the outbreak, or a reduction of the fear of the possibility of infection, because they were finally not infected even during the actual onset of the outbreak.