Public Opinion Survey
March 2020
Supervised by: Dr.Samir Abu-Rumman
Introduction
World of Opinions center conducted a survey about Kuwaitis society’s opinion on Coronavirus. The aim of this survey is to understand Kuwaitis impressions, concerns and expectations about the pandemic, their opinions on the governmental response to the crisis and the preventive measures adopted to protect themselves. Some of the questions were selected in joint coordination with Gallup International, which had conducted the same questions on other countries simultaneously.
The sample of the survey comprised of respondent’s data from previous surveys and available databases. A snowball sample method was applied to receive more responses. The sample size was 2901 response. The data collection was conducted online between 12-16 of march 2020. Data were analysed with SPSS and NVIVO. Gender and age groups of respondents is shown in the table below:
Findings
- Kuwaitis impressions on the pandemic
In this survey, Kuwaitis expressed their opinions about the pandemic. The vast majority (92.7%) mentioned that they are afraid of getting infected by coronavirus, either themselves or their family. Few respondents considered that that the virus risk is overestimated (29.6%).
On this regard the vast majority (95.4%) assured that Kuwait government is responding well to the coronavirus. While 87.5% stressed that they are willing to give up their rights if it was needed to limit coronavirus spread.
Around half of respondents (56.5%) felt optimistic that things will get better within next month and that Kuwait have crossed the worst stage. One third of respondents (29%) felt pessimistic referring that the worst hasn’t come yet. Only 14.5% said that the situation will remain the same. More females felt optimistic (61.7%) than males (49.2%).
Half of Kuwaitis (50.1%) believes that there is other country/ power spreading the virus willfully. For those who believe so and answered the questions of “who is that other county/ power?”, more than half of them (55.7%) believes its America, followed by Iran (19.2%), then Egypt and China (17.9% both).
- Adherence to preventive measures
Most of the respondents adopt the preventive measures needed to protect themselves from coronavirus, such as staying home (88.3%), washing their hands frequently (86.4%), and using hand sanitizer (78.8%). To a lesser degree, respondents expressed their adherence to social preventive measures, such as stopping hand shaking (67.8%), stopping kissing (67.7%), and reducing social interaction (66.4%). Advanced preventive measures received fewer responses, such as wearing hand gloves (54.3%), self-quarantine (43.2%) and wearing face mask (36.2%). Only 2.4% stated that respondents don’t adopt any preventive measure.
Males and females adopt specific preventive measures in different rates. More females wear hand gloves (62.5%) compared to males (42.4%), in addition to using face mask (females 41%, males 29.2%). More females also stated adopting self-quarantine as a preventive measure (47.5%) compared to males (37.1%). Additionally, higher age groups (older than 44) were more adherent to stopping kissing at 75.1% compared to younger ones at 61%, along with stopping handshaking (74.7% for respondents older than 44 compared to 61.5% for younger ones).
More than half of respondents (66.8%) expressed that people in Kuwait are dealing with corona crisis sufficiently. While around one third considered that people are dealing with it recklessly. Only few of them (6.1%) stated that people are dealing with it exaggeratedly. Respondents from higher age groups (older than 44) stated more that people are dealing with the crisis sufficiently at 72.2%, compared to younger ones (61.8%)
- Satisfaction with actors’ response
Most of respondents expressed their satisfaction with the government ministries in their response to coronavirus. The Ministry of Health had the highest satisfaction over other ministries at 98.7% of respondents, while the Prime Ministers Council had the lowest satisfaction among ministries at 80.1%. The parliament received the lowest satisfaction at 21.3% of respondents. Around half of respondents expressed their satisfaction with charities and telecommunication companies (56.8% and 51.3% respectively). More females expressed their satisfaction with charities (64.7%) compared to males (45.6%).
Moreover, most Kuwaitis support the Prime Ministries Council’s recent decision related to shutdown public and private sectors for two weeks (98.4%), and the decision of suspending flights (98.5%). Regarding decisions that government might take in the future, 83.4% support imposing curfew as a preventive measure to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Responses were varied regarding what should be done in to schools and universities. Less than half of respondants (45.6%) support combining second semster grade with the first semester, and consider all students have succeed the semester. Around one third (27.5%) supported canceling the second semester for primary and middle schools, and carry on with secodnary school and university. Fifth of respondants (19.7%) support never cancling any of the educational stages and semesters.
Conclusion
This survey showed the Kuwaitis’ degree of support toward governmental measures, and high satisfaction with the ministries’ response to corona crisis. It showed also how Kuwaitis are willing to accept hard measure that might be imposed, such as curfew. The results showed how Kuwaitis adhere to preventive health measures, and to less degree adhere to social preventive measures. Respondents divided between optimism and pessimism toward the future of coronavirus crisis in Kuwait, in addition to being divided around believing if there is a country behind spreading the virus, and which one is it.
for full report in Arabic :HERE
