What determines the attitudes toward the pandemic: conspiracy beliefs or health literacy?

10.30207/AHLA.202312.0025

Mariusz Duplaga；Marta Wilk

COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs ； COVID-19 vaccination ； e-health literacy ； epidemic threat ； pandemic ； generic conspiracist beliefs ； health literacy

The Proceeding of the 9th AHLA International Health Literacy Conference: Health Literacy and Social Resilience

2023（2023 / 12 / 01）

27 - 27

英文

Background: The infodemic accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic raised an essential question about the role of misinformation and conspiracy beliefs in shaping attitudes and opinions about epidemic threats and government measures. It was also frequently emphasized that health and e-health literacies may be a remedy against misinformation. Objectives: The main aim of this study was the analysis the effect of general conspiracist beliefs (GCB) and COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs (CCB) vs. health (HL) and e-health literacy (eHL) after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and political sympathies on the perception of pandemic-related risk (PPRR), the acceptance of vaccination against COVID-19 (AV), the acceptance of governmental actions (AGA) and introduced restriction (AR). Method: The data used for the analysis were derived from the computer-assisted web-based interviewing survey of 2410 Polish adults conducted in May 2021, 14 months after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Multivariate linear regression models were developed for PPRR, AV, AGA, and AR. Results: Lower PPRR was observed in persons with lower GCB (B, 95%CI: 0.14, 0.06-0.22), higher CCB (-0.06, -0.07 - -0.05), and higher HL (-0.11, -0.21- -0.002). Lower AV was seen in respondents with higher GCB (-0.14, -0.22 - -0.06), and higher CCB (-0.07, -0.08 - -0.06). HL and eHL had no significant effect. Lower AGA was associated with higher GCB (-0.12, - 0.21 - -0.04) and lower eHL (0.02, 0.01 - 0.04). Finally, lower AR was significantly associated only with lower CCB (0.08, 0.07 - 0.09). Conclusion: The attitudes toward the pandemic and actions undertaken by the government are significantly associated with GCB and less often with CCB. Unexpectedly, HL and eHL exerted only limited effects on analyzed attitudes.