Swine Flu – No Panic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Swine Flu – No Panic

Only 1 In 4 Kiwis Think They Are Likely To Catch
Or
Are Concerned About Catching It

Swine flu may be a global pandemic, but only one in four New Zealanders think they are likely to catch it or are concerned about catching it.

These findings are from a UMR Research survey of a nationally representative sample of 750 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over .

“Although most New Zealanders (64%) have been following swine flu pandemic stories in the media closely over the past month, we don’t seem to be too concerned about catching it, “a UMR Director Tim Grafton said.

UMR asked people to rate on a 1-5 scale where 1 meant ‘very concerned’ and 5 ‘not concerned at all’ how concerned they were about catching swine flu.

“Only 28% expressed concern – that is gave a 1 or a 2 rating. That’s the same amount who were neutral and gave a 3 rating. In fact, almost half (44%) were not concerned and gave a 4 or 5 rating” he said.

Slightly fewer thought they were likely to catch swine flu. Only 24% said they were likely to catch it and 41% said they were unlikely to.

Those living in Christchurch and Wellington, where infections have been higher, thought they were more likely to catch it and those in rural and provincial areas were the least likely to think they would catch it. Correspondingly, concern about catching it was higher in those cities than elsewhere.

Across age groups, those under 30 years of age were least concerned with about half saying they were neither likely to catch it nor were concerned about catching it.

ends

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