NR ATEE
AU Setbon,M.; Raude,J.; Fischler,C.; Flahault,A.
TI Risk perception of the "mad cow disease" in France: determinants and consequences.
QU Risk Analysis 2005 Aug; 25(4): 813-26
PT journal article
AB Since 1996, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was assessed as a possible human transmissible disease, a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), French people have entered into a long period of fear and avoidance of beef and bovine byproducts, which produced an unprecedented collapse in the beef market. This article deals with the perceived risk of the "mad cow disease" (MCD) in the French general population. Two surveys were conducted on a representative sample of the adult population, the first one in 2000 during the peak of the crisis and the second one 13 months later in a quieter period. The main assumption we made was that changes in beef consumption are strongly related to the perceived risk of MCD, which we defined as people's cognitive and affective responses to hazard. Our objective was to identify the determinants and consequences of this perceived risk and to compare them in different sociopolitical contexts. The results issued from a bivariate and multivariate analysis show that: (i) the distribution of most of the variables significantly related to the perceived risk identified in the first survey had changed in the second survey, in relation with the reduction of worry and the resumption of national beef consumption; (ii) the propensity for self-protection through avoiding or ceasing beef eating was more related to feelings of worry than to subjective vCJD risk assessments; and (iii) the main determinant of less avoidance to beef products was the preference for beef, a feeling identified prior to emergence of the risk of MCD, remaining unchanged in various contexts.
IN Konsumenten-Befragungen im Jahr 2000 und 13 Monate danach zeigten, dass in Frankreich Befürchtungen hinsichtlich des BSE-Risikos nachgelassen und der Rindfleisch-Konsum wieder zugenommen hatten. Diejenigen, die aus Sorge vor BSE auf Rindfleisch verzichteten, sollen dies eher aufgrund von Angstgefühlen als auf der Grundlage subjektiver Risikobewertungen getan haben. Wer trotz BSE nicht auf Rindfleisch verzichtete, soll dies aufgrund einer schon vor der BSE-Krise ausgeprägten Vorliebe für Rindfleisch getan haben.
MH Adult; Animals; Cattle; Data Collection; Diet; Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform/*transmission; Food Contamination; France; Humans; Meat/toxicity; Multivariate Analysis; Perception; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Risk
AD National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Institute of Labour Economics and Industrial Sociology, Aix-en-Provence, France. m.setbon@univ-aix.fr
SP englisch
PO USA