Exploring the relationship between government stringency and preventative social behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Al-Zubaidy, Noor; Fernandez Crespo, Roberto; Jones, Sarah; Gould, Lisa; Leis, Melanie; Maheswaran, Hendramoorty; Neves, Ana Luisa; Darzi, Ara; Drikvandi, Reza

Abstract

We constructed a preventive social behaviours (PSB) Index using survey questions that were aligned with WHO recommendations, and used linear regression to assess the impact of reported COVID-19 deaths (RCD), people's confidence of government handling of the pandemic (CGH) and government stringency (GS) in the United Kingdom (UK) over time on the PSB index. We used repeated, nationally representative, cross-sectional surveys in the UK over the course of 41 weeks from 1st April 2020 to January 28th, 2021, including a total of 38,092 participants. The PSB index was positively correlated with the logarithm of RCD (R: 0.881, < .001), CGH (R: 0.592, < .001) and GS (R: 0.785, < .001), but was not correlated with time (R: -0.118, = .485). A multivariate linear regression analysis suggests that the log of RCD (coefficient: 0.125, < .001), GS (coefficient: 0.010, = .019), and CGH (coefficient: 0.0.009, < .001) had a positive and significant impact on the PSB Index, while time did not affect it significantly. These findings suggest that people's behaviours could have been affected by multiple factors during the pandemic, with the number of COVID-19 deaths being the largest contributor towards an increase in protective behaviours in our model.

Citation

Al-Zubaidy, N., Fernandez Crespo, R., Jones, S., Gould, L., Leis, M., Maheswaran, H., …Drikvandi, R. (2023). Exploring the relationship between government stringency and preventative social behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Health Informatics Journal, 29(4), Article 14604582231215867. https://doi.org/10.1177/14604582231215867

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 1, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 30, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 8, 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 13, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 13, 2023
• Journal: Health informatics journal
• Print ISSN: 1460-4582
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 14604582231215867
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14604582231215867
• Keywords: health policy, Humans, Cross-Sectional Studies, United Kingdom - epidemiology, COVID-19, COVID-19 - epidemiology, Social Behavior, Government, patient safety, Pandemics, heath informatics
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1987808