More than 90% of Portuguese respondents in a study on Covid-19 reported always wearing a mask when they leave home and 88% say they feel confident in healthcare professionals.
The study that aims to listen to opinions and capture the perceptions of the Portuguese population about the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on its impact on access to health care, was released today at the presentation of the Movimento Saúde em Dia, an initiative of the Ordem dos Médicos and of the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators.
Preliminary data were presented by Francisca Azevedo, executive director of GFK Metris, and show that 94% of Portuguese people say "they always wear the mask when they leave home".
«In fact, the Portuguese, in a generic way, are even complying with the rules and guidelines that are passed and will be reinforced» also with the campaign presented, this Tuesday, 9th of September “Health on time – don't mask the health,” said Francisca Azevedo.
The study aimed to ascertain the "perceived importance of the covid-19 pandemic theme, as well as the level of information they have about it" and the behaviors adopted in daily life (frequent handwashing, mask use, maintenance safety distance, avoid crowded places, social isolation).
The research also aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic (decrease in income, health risk, limited access to healthcare) and the “security/insecurity in access to healthcare” and its reasons: “I feel confident to receive health care in a public hospital”, “in my Health Center/Family Health Unit”, to “go to a pharmacy to buy medicines”.
It also intended to quantify the extent to which the Portuguese stopped, or not, from accessing health care during the pandemic (with a distinction made between chronic and non-chronic patients) and to know the opinion of the Portuguese on the performance of entities and sectors during the pandemic.
This knowledge will be shared and analyzed on September 22, at a meeting of experts, with the aim of «promoting reflection on acquired knowledge and the challenges of health systems, in order to develop effective proposals».
The information was collected through direct and personal interviews, in complete privacy, based on a structured questionnaire prepared by the project team and GfK Metris.
The fieldwork took place between the 28th of August and the 7th of September and was carried out by interviewers recruited and trained by GfK Metris, who received training appropriate to the specificities of this study.
The universe is made up of individuals aged 18 and over, residing in Portugal, in a sample of 1.000 individuals, proportional to the Portuguese population, with a margin of error of 3,1% for a 95% confidence interval.
The data will be weighted for the universe of the study population, 8.251 million individuals.
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