Table II.
Perceptions related to asymptomatic SARS patients, recovered SARS patients and other features of SARS
| % Agreeing with statements | Male (n = 207) | Female (n = 250) | All respondents | P valuea |
| Asymptomatic patients | ||||
| SARS patients could be asymptomatic | 58.9 | 62.8 | 61.1 | 0.399 |
| Currently, there are many asymptomatic SARS patients in Hong Kong | 22.2 | 25.6 | 24.1 | 0.400 |
| SARS could be transmitted via asymptomatic SARS patients | 76.8 | 74.8 | 75.7 | 0.618 |
| Infectivity of recovered SARS patients | ||||
| SARS patients having recovered for 18 months could transmit SARS to others | 17.5 | 15.2 | 16.2 | 0.512 |
| Dining with recovered SARS case could transmit SARSb | 16.4 | 14.8 | 15.5 | 0.633 |
| Handshaking with recovered SARS patients could transmit SARSb | 10.6 | 11.6 | 11.2 | 0.743 |
| Recovered SARS patients would have very poor health in the very long run | 64.3 | 78.8 | 72.2 | 0.001 |
| An infected person is immune from contracting SARS in the future | 20.3 | 18.4 | 19.3 | 0.610 |
| Recovered SARS patients would not be able to handle demanding job dutiesb | 35.7 | 50.8 | 44.0 | 0.001 |
| Other features of SARS | ||||
| SARS could be transmitted via aerosols | 52.2 | 52.8 | 52.5 | 0.894 |
| The mortality rate for SARS patients of age <60 years was >10% | 41.1 | 50.0 | 46.0 | 0.056 |
| I am still much disturbed by SARSb | 28.6 | 36.0 | 32.7 | 0.095 |
a
Chi-square test.
b
The time frame was set to be the time of the survey, which was ∼8 months since the reporting of the last SARS case in Hong Kong.