University students’ risk perception and anxiety during COVID-19 using social media and professional platforms as information sources

According to the health belief model, risk perception denotes personal beliefs about the likelihood of contracting a disease. Consequently, people who perceive a high level of susceptibility to a particular disease would adopt preventive actions to decrease the risk of developing it whereas individuals with low perceived susceptibility may refute the risk of contracting a particular illness. Such people are unlikely to engage in protective behaviors even if those around them are face with the same threat of a disease. Sources of information during infectious diseases outbreak play a key role to successfully manage public health risk communication. Therefore, identifying sources of information and characteristics of people who seek information from different outlets are important for policy makers to develop crisis-response strategies. The rationale of the study was to: 1. establish the relationship between risk perception and anxiety. 2. assess how social media platforms moderate the link between COVID-19 risk perception and anxiety. 3. examine how professional platforms moderate the connection between risk perception and anxiety.