Willingness to Self-Isolate When Facing a Pandemic Risk: Model, Empirical Test, and Policy Recommendations

Xiaojun Zhang, Fanfan Wang, Changwen Zhu and Zhiqiang Wang
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Xiaojun Zhang: School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China
Fanfan Wang: School of Public Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
Changwen Zhu: School of Public Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
Zhiqiang Wang: School of Public Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Infected people are isolated to minimize the spread of pandemic diseases. Therefore, the factors related to self-isolation (SI) should not be neglected, and it is important to investigate the factors leading the infected (or possibly infected) people to choose to self-isolate. In this paper, we tried to show that the theory of planned behavior provides a useful conceptual framework for SI when facing a pandemic risk, and a regression method with Chinese provincial (Guangdong Province) data was applied to investigate how attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) influence SI when facing a pandemic emergency. The results and the robustness tests confirm that ATT, SN, and PBC have a significant positive influence on SI when facing a pandemic emergency. ATT plays the most important role, followed by SN and then PBC. Based on the factors of SI, we found, through theoretical and empirical analyses, at least three important aspects that local governments need to consider to encourage citizens to self-isolate when facing a pandemic.

Keywords: pandemic risk; self-isolation; planned behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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