The Effects of Change in Risk Perception on Health Behaviors and Outcomes

Abstract

This paper suggests that changes in risk perceptions can play a critical role in an improvement of preventive behaviors and health outcomes by examining the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Korea. I find that the negative health shock caused by the H1N1 influenza outbreak in Korea served as a natural nudge that facilitated the practice of handwashing and reduced the number of patients having diseases which are easily preventable by washing hands with soap (e.g. intestinal infections and conjunctivitis). This reduction was greater among children under four years of age, with an almost -12.1% decline in intestinal infections and and -15.6% decline in conjunctivitis. I also conduct subgroup analysis by income and residence, and find that effects were greater among people with higher risk perceptions. Several robustness checks and increases in online searches for health-related keywords provide further evidence that the great reduction of the patients with intestinal infections and conjunctivitis is mainly attributed to the changes in individual risk perceptions and health behaviors due to the health shock of the H1N1 influenza outbreak.