Risk Perception Towards COVID-19 and Its Associated Factors Among Waiters in Selected Towns of Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background

Waiters working in hotels, pensions, restaurants, and cafeteria are more susceptible to COVID-19 and easily transmit the virus to others because they interact with almost all individuals who enter those establishments. However, information regarding their risk perception is scarce; hence, this study aimed to assess risk perception regarding COVID-19 and its associated factors among waiters working in the selected towns of southwest Ethiopia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 1 to 15, 2020. The interview-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered into Epi data manager version 4.0.2 and exported to SPSS version 24 for analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis was done to identify factors associated with risk perception. A p-value of less than 0.05 was used as a level of significance.

Results

A total of 416 waiters were interviewed, with a 98.6% response rate. The mean age of respondents was 27.26 (SD=8.35) years. More than half (53.4%) agreed that COVID-19 causes more deaths than other respiratory diseases. Regarding overall risk perception, two hundred twenty-two (53.4%) participants had high-risk perceptions concerning COVID-19. Risk perception was associated with age (β= 0.10; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.18), knowledge of COVID-19 (β=0.50, 95% CI: 0.23, 0.76) and preventive behaviors (β=0.62; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.90).

Conclusion

A higher level of risk perception was found regarding the COVID-19. Proper risk communication to promote protective behaviors is very essential since waiters are more at risk to be infected with COVID-19 and their infection with the virus has important public health implications.

Keywords:

• risk perception
• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• waiters

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mizan-Tepi University for supporting this research project. We also extend our thanks to our data collectors and study participants for their magnificent contributions to this work.

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

This study was conducted per the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Mizan-Tepi University. The participants have informed the purpose of the study and gave written consent before the interview. Participation in the study was completely voluntary, and the right to withdraw from the interview was also secured. Confidentiality of the information was ensured throughout the study.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding to report.