Iran's healthcare workers' risk perception of covid-19 at the beginning of the crisis and its influencing factors: a cross-sectional study

The emergent Covid-19 disease with conspicuous prevalence is putting the healthcare workers' job security at risk. The preventive behaviors in every individual have a close relationship with his/her risk perception of the risk factor. Hence the present study has been undertaken aiming at determining the Iranian healthcare workers' risk perception of the Covid-19 disease at the beginning of the crisis and the relevant effective factors
This anonymous online survey was conducted in summer, 2020 using available sampling method among the Iranian healthcare workers. The data was collected via online-social networks using a researcher-made questionnaire containing demographical specifications, risk perceptions, with five sub-scales including cognitive, cultural, political, social and emotional factors. Data analysis was done in spss software 16.
From 165 participants, the age group (20-49 years) with 84% and the females with 60% constituted the majority of participants. The average risk perception score of the healthcare workers was 66.43±8.17. The Spearman correlation coefficient showed the significant direct relationship between the risk perception score and all the sub-scales at 0.01 significance level. The political and cultural factors had the highest correlation with the personnel risk perception (r > 0.75).
At the beginning of the crisis, Health workers did not have an excellent risk perception of the emergent Covid-19 disease. It seems that at the onset of a crisis, training is necessary to increase the risk perception of employees.