Fear of infection in July
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In July a smaller percentage of people than in previous months was worried about catching the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Anxiety over becoming infected was expressed by 59% of respondents (5 percentage points lower than June), while 40% were not concerned (5 points more than previously).
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The biggest differences in anxiety over the coronavirus were connected with age: in the 18-24 age group 31% of respondents expressed concern, while among the over 65s this was as high as 76%.
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Fear of infection was more often a worry for women (65%) than men (53%).
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The higher the level of education, the lower the fear of the coronavirus. Of people with a primary or secondary school education 69% expressed anxiety, while for university graduates this was 54%.
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When looking at the size of the places where people live, inhabitants of villages and small towns (with populations below 20,000) were the most anxious: 63% of respondents in both groups said they were worried. Least anxious about possible infection were respondents from towns with populations of 100,000-499,999, just over half of whom (51%) expressed concern. The inhabitants of the largest cities, with populations over 500,000, admitted to being worried somewhat more frequently (57%).
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When it comes to differences based on employment, the greatest concern was among retired pensioners (76%) and those on long-term health and invalidity benefits (71%). Farmers (68%) and office workers (66%) also expressed anxiety relatively frequently. Least worried were school and university students (38%), workers in the service sector (41%) and skilled manual workers (42%).
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Fear of infection was somewhat less frequent among those with relatively high incomes than those with low or average earnings. In the groups of respondents declaring a household income below 2000 zloty per capita, 63% expressed anxiety. This became 59% for those with a per capita income of 2000-2999 zloty, dropping to 55% for those with over 3000 zloty disposable income.
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This ‘Current Events and Problems’ survey (361) was conducted using a mixed-mode procedure on a representative sample of named adult residents of Poland, randomly selected from the National Identity Number (PESEL) register.
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Respondents independently selected one of the following methods:
– Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI);
– Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), respondents receiving researchers’ telephone numbers in an introductory letter from CBOS;
– Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI), where respondents filled in the online questionnaire independently, gaining access by means of a login and password provided in an introductory letter from CBOS.
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In all three cases the questionnaire had the same structure and comprised the same questions. The survey was carried out between 30 June and 9 July 2020 inclusive on a sample of 1339 people (66.1% using the CAPI method, 19.6% CATI and 14.3% CAWI).
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