Lau, Nathan TT;
Wilkey, Eric D;
Soltanlou, Mojtaba;
Cusiac, Rebekka Lagace;
Peters, Lien;
Tremblay, Paul;
Goffin, Celia;
... Ansari, Daniel; + view all
(2022)
Numeracy and COVID-19: examining interrelationships between numeracy, health numeracy and behaviour.
Royal Society Open Science
, 9
(3)
, Article 201303. 10.1098/rsos.201303.
Preview |
Text
Numeracy and COVID-19 examining interrelationships between numeracy, health numeracy and behaviour.pdf - Published Version Download (847kB) | Preview |
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people across the globe have been exposed to large amounts of statistical data. Previous studies have shown that individuals' mathematical understanding of health-related information affects their attitudes and behaviours. Here, we investigate the relation between (i) basic numeracy, (ii) COVID-19 health numeracy, and (iii) COVID-19 health-related attitudes and behaviours. An online survey measuring these three variables was distributed in Canada, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) (n = 2032). In line with predictions, basic numeracy was positively related to COVID-19 health numeracy. However, predictions, neither basic numeracy nor COVID-19 health numeracy was related to COVID-19 health-related attitudes and behaviours (e.g. follow experts’ recommendations on social distancing, wearing masks etc.). Multi-group analysis was used to investigate mean differences and differences in the strength of the correlation across countries. Results indicate there were no between-country differences in the correlations between the main constructs but there were between-country differences in latent means. Overall, results suggest that while basic numeracy is related to one's understanding of data about COVID-19, better numeracy alone is not enough to influence a population's health-related attitudes about disease severity and to increase the likelihood of following public health advice.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Numeracy and COVID-19: examining interrelationships between numeracy, health numeracy and behaviour |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.201303 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201303 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Numeracy, health numeracy, COVID-19, health policy and adherence |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197549 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
