1. Introduction
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected the global community resulting in 31,343,430 confirmed cases globally and 965,250 deaths as of September 22, 2020 [
1]. The three most-infected countries globally are USA, India, and Brazil, with 6,858,010; 5,562,663 and 4,558,040 confirmed cases, respectively. These cases of COVID-19 led to 199,886; 137,272; and 88,935 deaths in USA, Brazil, and India, respectively. COVID-19 disease originates from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was initially recognized in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019 [
2], while in January 2020, it was already declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a public health emergency of international concern [
3]. Two months later (i.e., in March 2020), it had already developed to a pandemic.
The disease is characterized by various symptoms, appearing during a range from 2 to 14 days after exposure. Though 97.5% of patients develop symptoms within approximately 11–12 days after infection [
4,
5,
6,
7]. The virus seems to spread through droplet transmission [
4] as well as fecal-oral transmission [
8,
9,
10], with symptoms ranging from very mild to very severe [
4], while certain people infected may not experience any symptoms at all [
11].
The most common symptoms include fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, and fatigue [
2,
5,
12,
13,
14,
15]. Other symptoms are anorexia, nausea, and diarrhea [
2,
4,
5,
13,
14,
16]. Additionally, it is reported that just before or soon after the symptom onset, people that have been affected by the virus have high nasopharyngeal viral levels that fall over the course of approximately one week [
17]. One of the fundamental problems in combating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and, thus, the COVID-19 disease is that pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic people are infectious. A 40% to 50% of the cases are attributed to transmission from asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic individuals [
18].
Age is considered a risk factor of COVID-19, especially for individuals above 65 years old. At the same time, cardiovascular problems, chronic lung disease, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity are also connected with a high risk of being infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus [
4,
6,
13,
19]. On the other hand, while young people are not classified at direct risk of COVID-19 mortality, they are considered as virus transmission-risk associated, in the sense that in most cases, they are asymptomatic but are a potential spread source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Therefore, it becomes of crucial significance to know whether young people are informed of the symptoms of COVID-19 since humanity is faced with this long-lasting pandemic. These young individuals might be called to deal with a severe health condition due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus regarding friends, relatives, or even themselves. It is imperative to ensure that young people are fully conscious of the disease’s symptoms, in case they spot them in relatives or friends. If this situation appears, they will be able to support them before the problem is beyond their control, while they might be the ones who have infected them in the first place.
Since the COVID-19 disease is a continuing health crisis, previously published research regarding SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease is significant to better comprehend the spread of the virus and prevent the COVID-19 disease. Gaining insights from the young people about their knowledge regarding the symptoms of COVID-19 is equally crucial since their knowledge may project their future behavior if they face a health issue in their environment due to the virus. Thus, symptom knowledge is critical in order to adopt a quick response and prevent the spread or unpleasant developments or outcomes of the disease.
Therefore, the subsequent research questions arose from the related literature and the significance of peoples’ knowledge regarding COVID-19 symptoms:
RQ1: Do young people believe that they are familiar with the symptoms of COVID-19?
RQ2: Do young people want to learn more about the transmission patterns of the virus, its spread, and its symptoms?
RQ3: Do male and female subjects express the same level of self-assessed knowledge regarding the symptoms of COVID-19?
RQ4: What marketing communication techniques should be implemented in order to increase young people’s awareness of COVID-19 symptoms?
For this research, data were gathered from Greece. Greece had taken proactive measures in an early stage, thus managing to have a rather small number of COVID-19 related confirmed cases and deaths [
20].
Specifically, data for this research is drawn from the Greek generation Z cohort. The generation Z cohort comprises of individuals born between 1995–2009 [
21,
22]. This research draws a sample from the adult citizens of the Greek generation Z cohort, being today (i.e., in 2020; year in which the research was conducted) 18–25 years old (thus born 1995–2002). Earlier studies have evidenced that consumer behavior depends on age [
23,
24], and that different age groups demonstrate distinct behavior [
25,
26], with scientists indicating the significance of using generational cohorts in consumer behavior studies [
27,
28,
29]. It must be highlighted that generations and generational cohorts are two different concepts. Specifically, generations are defined by a time frame of 20–25 years. Generational cohorts refer to individuals born within a specific time frame, specific area, and have lived the same life-changing events when they are 17–23 years of age. It is believed that common experiences and events formulate shared values and the establishment of similar behaviors that define each cohort [
22,
30,
31,
32]. The generation Z members are digitally savvy, and because of their relationship with technology, “Gen Z’ers” are also known as the “Digital natives,” “Homo Zappiens,” the “Google generation,” the “Net Generation,” or the “Dot-com kids” [
33,
34,
35]. The members of this generation still experience circumstances that shape their values system and personality. The members of this generational cohort constitute a pole of great academic interest, since they are the youngest adult consumers who will make their own families in the near future [
36]. It is generally recognized that a more in-depth knowledge of Gen Z’ers can lead to a better understanding of the significance of the different generations in contemporary society [
33,
34,
35].
Gen Z’ers have been faced with major political, economic, and social changes. The Greek generation Z members have experienced and are still enduring the harsh effects of the financial crisis that the country faces since 2010 [
37,
38]. They have undergone capital controls, the rise of the extreme right political party Golden Dawn (i.e., Chrisi Avgi), a left government, and large numbers of young and educated Greeks migrating to other countries in pursuit of better employment conditions and a more promising future. This year, they have faced the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s lockdown.
Insights from this youngest adult cohort is exceptionally important because they might reflect the behavior of the age group that is on the one hand asymptomatic in almost all cases, whereas, on the other hand, they may be infectious without knowing it—and thus a “moving threat” for the older and vulnerable population. Lastly, because in their majority they live together with parents and grandparents (due to the economic crisis that Greece has been facing for the last 11 years), they must be knowledgeable of the symptoms of COVID-19, in case they encounter them in family members. Therefore, they should be able to recognize them in order to request quickly medical help.
From the abovementioned research questions, the overarching aim of this research is to examine the Greek generation Z cohort’s self-assessed knowledge of the COVID-19 symptoms (overall and for 13 specific symptoms, answering RQ1). Furthermore, its objectives are to (1) explore if Gen Z’ers are willing to learn more about COVID-19, specifically regarding the transmission and spread of the virus, as well as the disease’s symptoms (answering RQ2); (2) examine whether males and females Gen Z’ers express the same levels of self-assessed knowledge regarding the signs of COVID-19 (answering RQ3); and lastly, (3) recommend marketing communication techniques targeting to raise awareness and increase understanding of COVID-19 symptoms for this specific generational cohort (answering RQ4).
While there is a rapid research boost and academic articles published concerning COVID-19, this research adds to the prior academic work in the subsequent ways:
It provides insights from a generational cohort that has not been studied (to our knowledge) regarding the COVID-19 disease. While one article has been found that deals with generational differences, it focuses solely on perceptions of food health-risk and attitudes toward organic food and game meat during the COVID-19 crisis in China [
39]. Though, that article does not deal with COVID-19 symptoms and deals with generations and not generational cohorts.
It studies self-assessed knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms, which is at present an understudied issue (42 academic papers exist to our knowledge). While COVID-19 is subject to extensive ongoing research, areas of main focus as regards individuals’ behavior mainly focus on the psychological impact of COVID-19, impact on work and telework, and protective measures that citizens comply with, e.g., [
20,
40,
41,
42,
43,
44,
45,
46].
It provides an in-depth insight of research referring to young people’s self-assessed knowledge regarding the symptoms of COVID-19, an understudied topic too. Specifically, only three peer-reviewed academic research papers were found that examine young peoples’ knowledge of COVID-19 [
47,
48,
49]. In these three papers, the majority used a sample of university students, drawn from health care and non-healthcare areas of study. The present research’s main criteria for inclusion were not to be employed in the health-care domain or be students in any healthcare school or department.
It examines young peoples’ interest in learning more about COVID-19 symptoms as well as SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission and spread, two issues that to our knowledge have not been dealt with.
It offers a detailed reflection of the youngest adult generation cohort’s behavior in crises situations, since information and risk knowledge can influence behavior [
50]
It explores gender differences of individuals of the generation Z cohort regarding self-assessed knowledge connected to COVID-19 symptoms, which to our knowledge has not been studied yet. While gender differences regarding various issues connected to COVID-19 has been investigated, no research has been found to be focused on gender differences from the specific generation cohort and COVID-19 self-assessed symptom knowledge.
4. Discussion
4.1. Self-Assessed Knowledge of COVID-19 Symptoms (RQ1-Aim of Study)
In relation to the RQ1/aim of the study, and by observing
Table 2 and
Table 3, it is evident that Gen Z’ers consider having adequate (overall) knowledge of the symptoms of COVID-19 (MS = 5.62 > 5.50). Additionally, the MS of the self-assessed knowledge for nine out of thirteen symptoms are <5.00, while the overall MS of the 13 symptoms is 4.58 (<5.00). This outcome reveals that Gen Z’ers have overestimated their overall knowledge of the COVID-19 symptoms and that the symptoms they are informed about are the ones mostly communicated by the government and the media. More precisely, concerning anorexia, abdominal pain, pharyngodynia, and hemoptysis, about half of the sample has limited knowledge of them being COVID-19 symptoms. This implies that, if the Gen Z’ers came across the specific symptoms rated with MS < 4.00, they would probably not be able to identify that they are connected with COVID-19, and they would possibly not pay the required attention.
These research findings can be considered partially in line with previous related research. Specifically, Zhong et al. [
47] examined 6910 participants from China regarding knowledge of COVID-19 (13 items), where one of the items referred to symptoms (“The main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, dry cough, and myalgia”), on a true-false-do not know scale. They found that 96.4% of the sample knew that these are the main symptoms of COVID-19. Alzoubi et al. [
48] examined 592 university students’ (medical and non-medical) knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms. Six items were included in the questionnaire on symptom knowledge (fever, cough, difficulty in breathing, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea). Results revealed that for the most common symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, difficulty in breathing), the knowledge rate was >90%, while the rest had a rate of 61–75%, the least being “Diarrhea is not a common symptom of COVID-19”.
Escalera-Antezana et al. [
49] in their cross-sectional study researched knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms (amongst others) with a one question-item. The research was undertaken in Colombia and Bolivia, employing 1165 healthcare students and workers. The question was an open-ended question presented as “Regard symptoms (of COVID-19), most patients present with…?” They found that knowledge about symptoms was higher in Bolivia than Colombia preceding the intervention (relevant training seminars). Following the intervention (that is, after they completed relevant training seminars), no significant differences were attested comparing before and after for Bolivian participants, though, for Colombian participants, there was a significant increase in their knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms.
The results that the current study yielded are partially in line with those of the above researches since this research explored the self-assessed level of overall and specific-related symptoms of COVID-19 (deepened into 13 specific symptoms). It revealed that Greek Gen Z’ers are knowledgeable of the most common symptoms (fever, cough, dyspnea, and fatigue) as revealed in the afore-mentioned studies, while the symptoms that are not so frequently come across of, i.e., anorexia, abdominal pain, pharyngodynia, and hemoptysis, were not rated in the abovementioned studies.
4.2. Interest in Obtaining Information Regarding COVID-19 (RQ2-Objective N.1)
Commenting on RQ3/objective N.1, this study (
Table 4) uncovered that Gen Z’ers are keen to learn more about SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19, with the vast majority concerned about the symptoms of COVID-19 rather than the transmission or spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus. This finding suggests that Gen Z’ers are interested in solving the problem rather than preventing it from happening. It might also mean that they are not interested in taking proactive measures or isolating themselves for their protection and the protection of others. Additionally, this outcome could be due to the lack of fear that COVID-19 could happen to them, since young people are in the overwhelming majority asymptomatic, while they undergo the disease rather painlessly. Lastly, it could just be a lack of interest in the whole issue since the mortality and symptomatic morbidity rate is exceptionally low in their age range. The results of this study cannot be compared to other studies since no previous research has dealt with this subject, though it could be generally be associated with risky behavior. Risk-taking can be defined as the engagement in behaviors that have the possibility of compromising an individual’s health and of the people around him/her [
55]. Prior research has explored the impact of age on risk-taking propensity [
56]. Research has shown similarities—across nations—in a heightened risk-taking propensity during adolescence, which can be increased during the second decade of a person’s life [
57,
58]. Furthermore, Duell et al. [
58] empirically supported in a cross-national study that age has an impact on real-life risk-taking, which heightens during the mid-twenties. Other researchers have also found that health risk behaviors augment in the 20s [
59,
60,
61,
62].
4.3. Gender Differences (RQ3-Objective N.2)
Emphasizing on the RQ3/Objective N.2, gender differences were detected regarding self-assessed overall knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and self-assessed knowledge of fever and fatigue as COVID-19 symptoms. In these cases, women reported higher knowledge compared to men (
Table 5: means). Lastly, with respect to the symptoms myalgia (muscle pain), pharyngodynia, nausea–vomitus, hemoptysis, and abdominal pain, results also revealed gender differences, with male subjects reporting higher self-assessed knowledge of these being symptoms of COVID-19 in comparison to female subjects (
Table 5: means). These results cannot be directly compared to the results of previous academic studies on the grounds that authors identified no prior study that encompassed gender differences of COVID-19 symptom knowledge.
Prior research demonstrates that, when examining young adults, females have higher risk perceptions and engage less in health risk behaviors than males [
58,
60,
63,
64]. In COVID-19 related research, Cvetkovic et al. [
65] supported that women believe more than men in that this disease is contagious. In addition, females felt more vulnerable than males to the disease [
66]. Furthermore, Cutler et al. [
67] reported that U.S. males are less likely to know how COVID-19 is spread or the exact symptoms of the disease, while Karijo et al. [
68] supported that females were more likely to name correctly the symptoms of the coronavirus than males.
4.4. Marketing Communication Routes Targeting Male and Females (RQ4/Objective N.3)
Individuals who belong to this generation are technology, social media, and smartphones savvy. They are surrounded by mobile devices, while social media have always been an integral part of their lives [
33,
69]. On the contrary, they cannot be easily reached through traditional media such as television [
69]. Gen Z’ers are considered traditional, infused with family values, and they tend to undertake their responsibilities [
33]. They desire to be taken seriously, they like sharing information, and they question things valuing trustworthiness. They also strive for rich experiences and intense pleasure [
70]. According to a research involving twenty countries with young people aged 15–21 years old, which was conducted in 2016 by the Varkey Foundation, Gen Z’ers appreciate technology, and their values are influenced by their parents. Interestingly, though, they are pessimistic about the way the world is devoting [
71].
Proactive communications play an integral role in a public health emergency and crisis and can become one of the most significant interventions in order to provide actual information [
20]. As shown from the study’s results, younger citizens should be better informed about COVID-19 and the symptoms of the disease. Digital media can be employed to ensure that the targeted audience obtains regular and up-to-date information on the disease, through e.g., websites and social media. The digital environment, especially social media, is important for disseminating information and shaping the behavior of young adults [
72]. Prior research has confirmed that platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn act as forums that connect users and facilitate the creation of online communities where opinions can be exchanged [
72]. Social media services acted as a source of information and played an important role in health issues and crises such Mers-CoV or Zika virus [
73], and especially for Gen Z’ers, social media constitute a great part of their daily routine. The sharing of stories (also targeted to the different genders), photos, and videos that demonstrate the key messages can further reinforce communication goals.
A digital media platform that offers great opportunities for targeting younger adults is YouTube with over two billion users, also combining audio and visual elements. It is one of the most preferred media for acquiring information about COVID-19 [
74]. Though, prior research has shown that more than 25% of the most viewed videos on YouTube regarding COVID-19 contained misleading information (e.g., the disease only affects older people), and videos from reputable sources are under-represented [
75]. Therefore, it is essential that trustworthy sources use the medium in a twofold way. Firstly, in order to inform young adults via effective strategic communication plans and, secondly, as with other social media to become a tool that authorities can use in order to listen to the opinions and beliefs of these categories of citizens. Maintaining a two-way communication is essential to comprehend and answer the concerns of Gen Z’ers and, also, to communicate the appropriate messages and information that will enable them to overcome any barriers in following precautionary measures.
Proper content and targeting and the use of various emotional tones (e.g., humor) can increase viewership and engagement of female and male Gen Z’ers. Furthermore, videos with the endorsement of celebrities and YouTubers that appeal to younger adults may extend the reach and reinforce the impact of the videos. Partnership with entertainment producers can enable the creation of material that disseminates information from official sources and at the same time has the potential to be viral amongst young adults. Individuals tend to be interested in and pay attention to news that affect them directly and personally [
76]. In that context, in order to increase attention, discussion and sharing of information, youngsters need to feel that they may be impacted by COVID-19. Because of their age, young adults usually feel less vulnerable to the disease and, therefore, disregard related information and recommendations for protection measurements [
77]. Therefore, communication that addresses the members of the generation Z cohort should highlight the advantages and importance of being informed about the disease and the symptoms and follow proactive measures, not only for protecting themselves but also for protecting their close ones, their society, and additionally gain in that way their peer group’s approval. Therefore, it is important to encourage discussions between members of this age group through various social media groups and also promote peer-to-peer communication.
Additionally, through these platforms, the concerns, questions, and misleading information should be closely followed to give factual answers. Within that framework, public communication should also be aligned with efforts for community engagement. Individuals who are influencers to these groups of adults as well as networks, such as various youth associations and women’s groups, could reinforce community engagement and act as mobilizers to target Gen Z’ers according to gender and interests. Furthermore, the strategic employment of social media with the use of hashtags and motives to share relevant information with friends and acquaintances can reinforce the adaptation of communication messages by young adults.
4.5. Limitations and Directions for Future Research
This research is characterized by certain limitations, although an attempt was made to regulate them. Firstly, a non-probability sampling method was applied, resulting in a lack of generalizability of the results. Secondly, due to economic and time constraints, the paper emphasized only on one country, i.e., Greece, and on a single generation cohort, the Gen Z’ers, resulting in a small sample compared to other studies exploring behavioral patterns towards COVID-19. Lastly, another limitation is that other symptoms that are connected to COVID-19 could have been also examined but the ones reported in this study are the most referred to in the pertinent literature.
Unquestionably, these limitations provide fertile ground for future research; among potential future directions, scholars may consider the expansion to more generational cohorts (generation X, generation Y, Baby Boomers, and GI generation), as well as using a probability sampling frame and a larger sample. Finally, it would be thought-provoking to apply this study to other countries’ generation Z cohorts in order to measure self-assessed knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and compare results.
Even though this study has the above-mentioned limitations, its contribution to the academic research is significant, as it offers requisite input regarding a generational cohort that has not been studied under the prism of COVID-19, while it also provides country-focused managerial suggestions in order to raise symptom awareness and public knowledge.