Table A1.
Survey item wording for dependent variable and environmental health literacy variables.
| Dependent Variable | Response Options |
|---|---|
| Willingness to engage in protective behaviors: “How willing are you to perform each of these behaviors to prevent your exposure to [COVID-19/PFAS]?” | |
| “Social distancing,” or having space between you and other people 1. | Not at all willing to Extremely willing (5 options) |
| Wearing a mask in public 1. | |
| Drinking bottled water rather than tap water 2. | |
| Removing furniture and carpet with stain resistant treatments from my home 2. | |
| Environmental Health Literacy | |
| Specific factual knowledge: “Can you tell us if each of the following statements is true or false, or if you don’t know?” | |
| The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China 1. | True, False, Don’t Know |
| COVID-19 is a fatal health threat only to people over the age of 60.1 | |
| PFAS are substances that do not exist naturally and are only man-made 2. | |
| All PFAS chemicals (including PFOS, PFOA, GenX) act the same way in humans and the environment 2. | |
| Knowledge sufficiency: “We would like you to rate your knowledge about the risks of [COVID-19/PFAS]. Please use a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 means knowing nothing and 100 means knowing everything you could possibly know about this topic.” | |
| Using this scale, how much do you think you currently know about the risk from [COVID-19/PFAS]? | Open-ended response from 0 to 100 |
| Using the same scale of 0 to 100, how much information about [COVID-19/PFAS] would be sufficient for you, that is, good enough for your purposes? | |
| Response efficacy: “As with many threats to health, there are different behaviors people might engage in to prevent exposure to viruses like COVID-19. How effective do you think each of the following activities is at preventing infection?” | |
| “Social distancing,” or having space between you and other people 1. | Not effective at all to Very effective (5 options) |
| Wearing a mask in public 1. | |
| Drinking bottled water rather than tap water 2. | |
| Removing furniture and carpet with stain resistant treatments from my home 2. |
1 Asked only in the group of respondents receiving COVID-19 questions. 2 Asked only in the PFAS group.