Asset Details
Do you wish to reserve the book?
Concern for severe COVID-19 disease during the initial two years of pandemic in a rural South African community: A population-based study
Hey, we have placed the reservation for you!
By the way, why not check out events that you can attend while you pick your title.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place the reservation. Kindly try again later.
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
Concern for severe COVID-19 disease during the initial two years of pandemic in a rural South African community: A population-based study
Do you wish to request the book?
Concern for severe COVID-19 disease during the initial two years of pandemic in a rural South African community: A population-based study
Please be aware that the book you have requested cannot be checked out. If you would like to checkout this book, you can reserve another copy
We have requested the book for you!
Your request is successful and it will be processed during the Library working hours. Please check the status of your request in My Requests.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place your request. Kindly try again later.
Journal Article
Concern for severe COVID-19 disease during the initial two years of pandemic in a rural South African community: A population-based study
2025
Overview
Globally, as of December 2023, over 700 million cases of COVID-19 were confirmed since the initial outbreak late in 2019, claiming around 7 million lives and fuelling widespread fear and anxiety. However, prospective patient-data are unavailable to assess individuals' perceptions of risk of severe COVID-19 illness, which may imply actual disease severity and inform risk perception for future epidemics.
We surveyed 1701 adults about their concern for severe COVID-19 disease using a population-based survey of rural South Africans. The initial telephonic survey was conducted between August-October 2020 with a follow-up survey conducted between August-October 2021. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of perceived COVID-19 illness severity (low, medium, or high) controlling for measured confounders.
The prevalence of concern for COVID-19 illness severity in 2020 was 28.7% low, 26.8% moderate and 44.5% severe, with corresponding levels in 2021 of 42%, 31.8% and 29.2%, respectively. Although older age was associated with a lower odds of COVID-19 concern [50-59 years (aOR=0.54, 95% CI: 0.38-0.75)], [≥60 years (aOR=0.41,95% CI: 0.41-0.57)], adults having ≥1 chronic conditions (aOR=1.38,1.00-1.89) or residing outside of the study community (aOR=1.29,1.01-1.65) were more likely to experience moderate and high concern for illness severity, respectively.
Understanding presumptive COVID-19 disease severity may help disentangle various underlying mechanisms behind personal risk assessment. This may inform current thinking and practice of public health emergency medicine in managing emerging and re-emerging respiratory diseases with pandemic potential such as hPMV.
