Objective To examine the prevalence and influencing factors of panic buying and hoarding of emergency supplies among the public during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic and to provide a reference for developing government guidance for public responses towards public health emergencies.
Methods Using a self-designed questionnaire on perception and response behavior of epidemic risk under regular prevention and control implementation, we carried out an online voluntary anonymous survey among adult internet users (≥ 18 years) in 31 provincial level regions across China between 3 – 13 of August, 2020.
Results Valid information were collected from a total of 19 132 respondents. Of the respondents, 80.2% reported panic buying of supplies related to COVID-19 epidemic response and 89.6% reported stockpiling of emergency supplies. Univariate analysis showed that the participants' panic buying and stockpiling were significantly impacted by searching for epidemic information actively, paying attention to epidemic information, local epidemic severity, panic mood, emotional susceptibility, regional epidemic risk level, with infected individuals around oneself, and epidemic severity in media coverage. The results of logistic regression analysis revealed that the participants at young age and with the education of high school and below are more likely to have panic buying and stockpiling; while the participants being married are more likely to have stockpiling.
Conclusion Panic buying and hoarding of emergency supplies were common and influenced by multiple factors among the public during COVID-19 epidemic in China, suggesting that targeted intervention measures for various people groups should be promoted by relevant governmental agencies.
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