Public Interest, Risk, Trust, and Personal Protective Equipment Purchase and Usage: Face Masks Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Jie Feng; Jian Li; Wuyang Hu; Gucheng Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph19095502

Public Interest, Risk, Trust, and Personal Protective Equipment Purchase and Usage: Face Masks Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 1;19(9):5502. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095502.

Authors

Jie Feng¹, Jian Li², Wuyang Hu³, Gucheng Li²

Affiliations

¹ The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 South Zhongguancun Street, Beijing 100811, China.
² The College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
³ Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.

Abstract

This analysis considers public interest in COVID-19-related issues as well as individuals' risk perception and trust in society in their demand for face masks during the pandemic. Through a national survey, we examine demand during both the outbreak and the recovery stage of the pandemic and differentiate demand into purchasing and usage. The examination allows us to observe the evolvement of demand over time and stockpiling. We find that public interest and risk perception had a more significant association with mask demand during the outbreak stage, and trust was more connected with mask demand during the recovery stage. While stocking was evident in both stages, consumers were much less price sensitive in the outbreak stage. Overall, the relationship between most factors and mask demand was smaller in the recovery stage. Our research is useful for policymakers to assess the creation and termination of temporary legislation to help manage the value chain of personal protective equipment during a major public health crisis.

Keywords: face mask; public interest; purchase; risk perception; trust; usage.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Humans
Masks
Pandemics / prevention & control
Personal Protective Equipment
SARS-CoV-2
Trust

Grants and funding

The second and fourth author acknowledges funding by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 72173052; 71803058; 71873050. The first and third author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.