TY - JOUR
T1 - National variability in Americans’ COVID-19 protective behaviors
T2 - Implications for vaccine roll-out
AU - Schneider, John A.
AU - Taylor, Bruce G.
AU - Hotton, Anna L.
AU - Lamuda, Phoebe A.
AU - Ozik, Jonathan
AU - Lin, Qinyun
AU - Flanagan, Elizabeth
AU - Pho, Mai Tuyet
AU - Kolak, Marynia
AU - Brewer, Russell
AU - Pagkas-Bather, Jade
AU - Pollack, Harold A.
N1 - Funding Information:
JS U2CDA050098 National Institute of Drug Abuse. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. JS UG1DA050066 National Institute of Drug Abuse. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. HP U2CDA050098 National Institute of Drug Abuse. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. HP UG1DA050066 National Institute of Drug Abuse. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Schneider et al.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Protective behaviors such as mask wearing and physical distancing are critical to slow the spread of COVID-19, even in the context of vaccine scale-up. Understanding the variation in self-reported COVID-19 protective behaviors is critical to developing public health messaging. The purpose of the study is to provide nationally representative estimates of five self-reported COVID-19 protective behaviors and correlates of such behaviors. In this cross-sectional survey study of US adults, surveys were administered via internet and telephone. Adults were surveyed from April 30-May 4, 2020, a time of peaking COVID-19 incidence within the US. Participants were recruited from the probability-based AmeriSpeak® national panel. Brief surveys were completed by 994 adults, with 73.0% of respondents reported mask wearing, 82.7% reported physical distancing, 75.1% reported crowd avoidance, 89.8% reported increased hand-washing, and 7.7% reported having prior COVID-19 testing. Multivariate analysis (p critical value .05) indicates that women were more likely to report protective behaviors than men, as were those over age 60. Respondents who self-identified as having low incomes, histories of criminal justice involvement, and Republican Party affiliation, were less likely to report four protective behaviors, though Republicans and individuals with criminal justice histories were more likely to report having received COVID-19 testing. The majority of Americans engaged in COVID-19 protective behaviors, with low-income Americans, those with histories of criminal justice involvement, and self-identified Republicans less likely to engage in these preventive behaviors. Culturally competent public health messaging and interventions might focus on these latter groups to prevent future infections. These findings will remain highly relevant even with vaccines widely available, given the complementarities between vaccines and protective behaviors, as well as the many challenges in delivering vaccines.
AB - Protective behaviors such as mask wearing and physical distancing are critical to slow the spread of COVID-19, even in the context of vaccine scale-up. Understanding the variation in self-reported COVID-19 protective behaviors is critical to developing public health messaging. The purpose of the study is to provide nationally representative estimates of five self-reported COVID-19 protective behaviors and correlates of such behaviors. In this cross-sectional survey study of US adults, surveys were administered via internet and telephone. Adults were surveyed from April 30-May 4, 2020, a time of peaking COVID-19 incidence within the US. Participants were recruited from the probability-based AmeriSpeak® national panel. Brief surveys were completed by 994 adults, with 73.0% of respondents reported mask wearing, 82.7% reported physical distancing, 75.1% reported crowd avoidance, 89.8% reported increased hand-washing, and 7.7% reported having prior COVID-19 testing. Multivariate analysis (p critical value .05) indicates that women were more likely to report protective behaviors than men, as were those over age 60. Respondents who self-identified as having low incomes, histories of criminal justice involvement, and Republican Party affiliation, were less likely to report four protective behaviors, though Republicans and individuals with criminal justice histories were more likely to report having received COVID-19 testing. The majority of Americans engaged in COVID-19 protective behaviors, with low-income Americans, those with histories of criminal justice involvement, and self-identified Republicans less likely to engage in these preventive behaviors. Culturally competent public health messaging and interventions might focus on these latter groups to prevent future infections. These findings will remain highly relevant even with vaccines widely available, given the complementarities between vaccines and protective behaviors, as well as the many challenges in delivering vaccines.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0259257
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0259257
M3 - Article
C2 - 34739498
AN - SCOPUS:85118997655
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 16
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 11 November
M1 - e0259257
ER -