Background: Delaying doctor consultation is harmful.Fear of COVID-19 leads to delays in seeking medical care at a time when pandemic information overflows.However, little is known about the Whiskey Decanter Set role of COVID-19 related fear, attention to information, and fact-checking in such delay.Objective: Under the Hong Kong Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project, we examined the associations of delay in doctor consultation amidst the pandemic with sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19 related fear, attention to information, and fact-checking.
Methods: We conducted a population-based online cross-sectional survey in May 2020 on Hong Kong Chinese adults.Respondents reported whether the pandemic caused any delay in doctor consultation (yes/no), level of COVID-19 related fear, attention to information and fact-checking (all on a scale of 0 to 10 and recoded into tertiles of low, moderate, high).Regression analyses were used to examine the associations of delay and fear with sociodemographic characteristics, attention and fact-checking, adjusting for covariates.Data were weighted by sex, age and education level of the population.
Results: Of 4,551 respondents (46.5% male, 59.7% aged over 45 years), 10.1% reported delay in doctor consultation.
The mean score was 6.4 for fear, 8.0 for attention and 7.4 for fact-checking.
Delay was more common in males and increased with age and fear.High vs.low level of fear was associated with delay [adjusted odd ratios (AOR) 2.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.
08, 3.47].Moderate level of fact-checking was negatively associated with delay (AOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.
56, 0.92).Females reported greater fear and fear decreased with age.Fear increased with attention to information and decreased with fact-checking.
Fear substantially mediated the association of delay with attention (96%) and fact-checking (30%).Conclusions: We have first shown that delay in doctor consultation increased with fear of COVID-19 and decreased with fact-checking amidst the pandemic.Fear also Essentials Kits increased with attention to COVID-19 related information and decreased with fact-checking.Understanding these associations can help policymakers develop targeted communication and support to the public to reduce delayed doctor consultations and the associated COVID-19-related or unrelated morbidity and mortality in the community.