Health
Health action with informed and engaged societies
Health
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 17 years ago
Last updated 1 year ago
Read so far

Consumer Knowledge and Risk Perceptions of Avian Influenza

0 comments
Affiliation

National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan (Hsu and Lee); National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan (Liu); National University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Huang)

Date
Summary

This study examined consumer risk perceptions and knowledge of avian influenza and its linkage to behavioural changes in chicken consumption in Taiwan. It was designed to assess an area where a pandemic situation like avian influenza has not yet occurred but where the consumers in the area may feel a possible threat. Contributions of this study are intended to provide new insights into knowledge and risk perceptions of avian flu and to reveal behavioural changes in chicken consumption.

 

A consumer survey was administered in 3 metropolitan areas in Taiwan in 2007. Multivariate analyses were utilised in this study to analyse data. Findings in this study indicate that respondents who were more knowledgeable of avian flu and had relatively high levels of risk perceptions would be likely to stay away from birds (responding to the possible animal-to-human transmission risk) and crowds (responding to the possible human-to-human transmission risk). Respondents with relatively low levels of avian flu knowledge were likely to prefer not eating chicken at all during a possible threat of avian flu outbreaks. According to the research, respondents with low risk perception levels would be more likely to maintain usual chicken consumption than those with high risk perception levels if outbreaks of avian flu were to occur.

 

 

The contributions of this study are intended to provide new insights into knowledge and risk perceptions of avian flu and to reveal behavioural changes in chicken consumption in an area where a pandemic situation like avian flu has not occurred but is under a possible threat of an outbreak. Findings in this study might be beneficial to government administration and industry managers in designing effective information communication for educational purposes to ease the possible effect on the poultry industry, as well as the consumer market, if outbreaks occur in Taiwan.

 

(The full document is available by subscription or on a pay-per-article basis from Sage Journals online.)

Web link
Click here to read the abstract of this document and access the full text.
Source

Avian Influenza Daily Digest, July 30 2008, and the Poultry Science, 2008, issue 87: pages 1526-1534.