Health beliefs and supporting conspiracy theories during COVID-19 pandemic

Uvod: Decembra 2019 se je na Kitajskem pojavila neznana oblika pljučnice. Bolezen se je hitro širila po svetu in predstavlja velik javnozdravstveni problem. COVID-19 je zelo kužna bolezen, saj lahko ena oseba okuži od 2 do 3 zdrave osebe. Glavna načina prenosa virusa sta preko kapljic in preko kontakta. Pri okužbi s COVIDOM-19 ni specifičnih bolezenskih znakov in simptomov, po katerih bi lahko okužbo razlikovali od ostalih virusnih okužb dihal. Bolezen lahko poteka v blagi ali celo v asimptomatski obliki, lahko pa pride tudi do resnega in kritičnega poteka bolezni. Do danes še ne poznamo učinkovitega zdravila proti COVIDU-19. Da bi zajezili hitro širjenje novega koronavirusa, so bili sprejeti številni preventivni zdravstveni ukrepi (pogosto umivanje rok, higiena kašlja, izogibanje rokovanju) in omejevanje stikov z ljudmi. Pandemija COVIDA-19 je povzročila razmah številnih teorij zarot. Te ponujajo preproste razlage, zakaj je do nekega dogodka sploh prišlo, nekateri posamezniki pa v njih verjamejo, ker jim dajejo občutek varnosti in nadzora. S seboj prinašajo tudi številne poslediceljudje zavračajo preventivne ukrepe, ki preprečujejo širjenje virusa ter nasprotujejo uradni medicini. Namen: Namen raziskave je ugotoviti, ali obstajajo povezave med različnimi dejavniki, kot so spol, izobrazba, ekonomski status ter zadovoljstvo z življenjem in podpiranjem morebitnih teorij zarot. Metode dela: Za raziskavo smo uporabili anketni vprašalnik, ki je bil del mednarodnega projekta v povezavi s prepričanji o koronavirusu, občutki, mišljenjem in reagiranjem v času pandemije ter kako je njihova osebnost povezana z njihovimi reakcijami. V teoretičnem delu smo uporabili deskriptivno metodo dela s študijem tuje in domače literature, ki smo jo iskali v podatkovnih bazah Cinahl, Medline, EBSCOhost in Google učenjak. Rezultati: V naši raziskavi smo potrdili, da izobrazba in ekonomski status vplivata na podpiranje teorij zarot, medtem ko spol in zadovoljstvo z življenjem v naši raziskavi nista bila povezana z verjetjem v teorije zarot. Razprava in zaključek: Politično prepričanje, osebna negotovost ter zarotniško razmišljanje so nekateri izmed dejavnikov, zaradi katerih bo oseba prej verjela teorijam zarote. Naši anketiranci so se v povprečju najbolj strinjali, da je bil koronavirus razvit v laboratoriju in za uporabo kot biološko orožje. Prav tako so se strinjali, da je zdravilo že odkrito, vendar je zaradi določenih ljudi zadržano, ker le-ti želijo, da se pandemija nadaljuje. Zaradi številnih neresničnih informacij, ki jih širijo mediji, predvsem splet, so ljudje izgubili zaupanje v zdravstveno osebje. Ljudje morajo biti do takšnih vsebin kritični. Pri zmanjševanju širjenja teorij zarot je pomembna predvsem izobrazba, kar smo potrdili tudi v naši študiji.Introduction: In December 2019, an unknown form of pneumonia appeared in China. The disease has spread rapidly around the world and poses a major public health problem. COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease, as one person can infect 2 to 3 healthy people. The main two ways of virus transmission are through droplets and through contact. There are no specific signs and symptoms of COVID-19 infection to distinguish the infection from others viral respiratory infections. The disease can occur in a mild or even asymptomatic form, but there can also be a serious and critical course of the disease. To date, no effective drug against COVID-19 is known. In order to limit the rapid spread of the new coronavirus, a number of preventive health measures have been taken (frequent hand washing, cough hygiene, avoidance of handshakes) and restriction of contact among humans. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a number of conspiracy theories. These offer simple explanations why an event occurred at all, and some individuals believe in them because it gives them a sense of security and control. With them also come many consequences: people reject preventive measures that prevent the spread of the virus and oppose medical science. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine whether there are links between different factors such as gender, education, economic status and life satisfaction and support of possible conspiracy theories. Methods: For the research, we used a questionnaire that was part of an international project related to coronavirus beliefs, feelings, thinking and reactions during a pandemic and how their personality is related to their reactions. In the theoretical part, we used a descriptive method of working with the study of foreign and domestic literature, which we searched in Cinahl databases, Medline, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar. Results: In our study, we confirmed that education and economic status influence support for conspiracy theories, while gender and life satisfaction in our research were not related to believing in conspiracy theories. Discussion and conclusion: Political beliefs, personal uncertainty, and conspiratorial thinking are some of the factors. which will make the person believe the conspiracy theories sooner. Our respondents, on average, mostly agreed that the coronavirus was developed in the laboratory and for use as a biological weapon. They also agreed that the drug had already been discovered. However, it is delayed because certain people want the pandemic to continue. Due to a lot of untrue information spread by the media, especially the Internet, people have lost trust in the medical staff. People need to be critical of such content. Education is especially important in reducing the spread of conspiracy theories, which was also confirmed in our research