Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Sep 14, 2020
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 11, 2020 - Sep 20, 2020
Date Accepted: Jan 15, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Age, gender, and health status affect Coronavirus concern, prevention behaviors, and willingness to return to behaviors when safe, but so does political party: Results of a large longitudinal cross-sectional survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
With conflicting information about COVID-19, the general public may be uncertain about how to proceed in terms of precautionary behavior.
Objective:
To determine the factors associated with COVID-19 concern, precautionary behaviors, and willingness to return to activity.
Methods:
National survey data come from The Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project, an ongoing cross-sectional weekly survey. The sample was provided by Lucid, a market research online platform. The U.S. sample included 125,508 respondents. Individuals were surveyed between March 19 and August 5, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.Three outcomes were considered: (1) COVID-19 concern [C], (2) precautionary behaviors [P], and (3) willingness to return to activity [R]. Key independent variables included: age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, household income, political party identification, religion, news consumption, number of medication prescriptions, perceived COVID-19 status, and timing of peak COVID-19 infections by state.
Results:
The data include 125,508 online surveys conducted over 20 consecutive weeks (roughly 6,250 adults per week). A substantial number of people would not be willing to return to activity. Weighted multivariate logistic regressions indicated the following groups had different outcomes across (1) COVID-19 concern [C], (2) precautionary behaviors [P], and (3) willingness to return to activity [R] (all P < .0001): aged 65+ (OR 2.05[C], CI [1.93, 2.18] , OR 2.38[P] CI [2.02, 2.80] I, OR 0.41[R] CI [0.37-0.46], vs. 18-40); men (OR 0.73[C] CI [0.70, 0.75], OR 0.74[P] CI [0.67, 0.81], OR 2.00[R] CI [1.88-2.12] , vs. women); taking 4 or more medications (OR 1.47[C] CI [1.40, 1.54], OR 1.36[P] CI [1.20, 1.555], OR 0.75[R] CI [0.69-0.81], vs. < 3 medications); Republicans (OR 0.40[C] CI [0.38, 0.42], OR 0.45[P] CI [0.40, 0.50], OR 2.22[R] CI [2.09-2.36], vs. Democrats); and adults who reported having COVID-19 (OR. 1.25[C] CI [1.12, 1.39] OR 0.61[P], CI [0.52, 0.81]; OR 3.99[R] CI [3.48-4.58], vs. those that did not).
Conclusions:
Participants’ age, party affiliation, and perceived COVID-19 status were highly associated with COVID-related concern, precautionary behaviors, and return to activity. On the part of health care providers, better understanding is needed of patient attitudes and perceptions in order to tailor effective messages.
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