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New Polling Data Suggests Canadians Increasingly Anxious About Pandemic Risk

Posted on: Thursday, 27 October 2005, 18:01 CDT

By HELEN BRANSWELL

TORONTO (CP) - New polling data suggest Canadians are becoming increasingly anxious about the risk of a flu pandemic, with a quarter of people saying they are paying close attention to the issue.

And unlike some health threats, where gaining more information lessens anxiety, with this issue the more people absorb, the more worried they become, the data suggest.

The polling was done by Decima Research, as part of the firm's weekly omnibus survey. It was provided exclusively to The Canadian Press.

"Definitely we're seeing a growth in attentiveness to the issue and a growth in anxiety about its potential consequences," Bruce Anderson, Decima CEO, said Thursday in an interview.

"And I think the other thing we're seeing is that people who are paying more attention are definitely showing a higher degree of anxiety than those who aren't."

Decima queried 1,016 adults on avian influenza from Oct. 20 to 24, repeating questions the polling firm asked in a survey taken last March. That was well before U.S. President George W. Bush's public musings about the pandemic risk posed by the H5N1 avian flu strain sent coverage of the issue into the stratosphere.

Back then most people reported they'd heard the warnings that an avian influenza might trigger a flu pandemic, but most said they felt the virus posed little risk to them.

This time around, 51 per cent felt the virus posed a risk to themselves and their families - compared to only 36 per cent in March.

The portion of people paying close attention to the issue jumped 10 percentage points - to 24 per cent from 14 per cent - and the portion ignoring it shrank to 10 per cent from 21 per cent.

Furthermore the portion of people who felt the risk was being exaggerated dropped six percentage points - and that at a time when people can't pick up a newspaper or tune into a TV or radio newscast without being bombarded by the latest news on "bird flu."

"One could make the case that it might have dropped lower than that - but it certainly didn't go up," Anderson noted.

The survey results are considered accurate to within 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Source: Canadian Press

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