Can Health Anxiety Override Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Knowledge?

Sammanfattning

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens global health, even though regulations exist globally, inappropriate antibiotic usage continues even though education campaigns have been held. Previous studies show that knowledge alone is insufficient to explain consumer behaviors toward antibiotics. As a result, this study explores how perceived disease severity (PDS) and individual antimicrobial resistance (AMR) knowledge (amrK) influence antibiotic purchasing intentions (PI), and how situational health anxiety (HAScs) mediates these relationships. A 2×2 factorial controlled laboratory experiment with 187 Swedish participants was employed, four distinctive scenarios were designed to manipulate perceived disease severity (PDS) and individual antimicrobial resistance knowledge (amrK). Participants rated their purchasing likelihood for themselves, neighbors, and average Swedish citizens. Situational and daily health anxiety were also measured. Significant direct relationships from individual AMR knowledge and situational health anxiety towards antibiotics purchasing intentions were found. A full mediation effect was statistically significant, suggesting perceived disease severity can predict antibiotics purchasing intentions through situational health anxiety. However, results also revealed that perceived disease severity did not directly influence purchasing intentions, indicating the PDS can only predict PI through situational health anxiety. Also, individual AMR knowledge failed to moderate these relationships. Higher disease severity consistently triggered situational health anxiety (B = .88, p = .008 < .05), which then drove antibiotic purchasing intentions (B = .26, p = .006 < .05). This mediation effect became weaker for anticipated neighbor purchases and disappeared for average citizen predictions. These findings challenge current AMR education strategies which assume knowledge leads to rational behavior. When people face health threats, emotional responses override subject understanding. As a result, future interventions should shift towards health anxiety evoked by perceived disease.