Adherence to COVID-19 mitigation measures: The role of sociodemographic and personality factors

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic caught the decision makers in many countries sub-optimally prepared to respond. To better cope with similar situations in the future, it is vital to understand the major predictors of health-beneficial behavior and adherence to imposed mitigation measures and guidelines. To tailor the promotion of government-imposed measures, it is important to understand how the sociodemographic background combined with personality traits affect the perception and responsiveness of people. We investigated the perception and adherence to mitigation measures during the pandemic by examining their trends across several sociodemographic categories and personality dimensions. The strongest predictors of confidence in the preventive measures and their implementation were the participants’ concern of infection and concern of infecting their loved ones, followed by gender and age. Education, settlement size, field and type of employment, household type, own medical problems, and the age and health of the participants’ loved ones had a smaller influence on the perceived guidelines importance and implementation. Adherence to measures was positively related to the participants’ score in conscientiousness and, in lesser extent, openness. Agreeableness, energy, and emotional stability correlated positively with adherence to basic guidelines. Study provides information useful for developing and adapting future public health policies and interventions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02051-5.

Sociodemographic factors and self-restraint from social behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: a cross-sectional study

“…More specifically, it has been reported that awareness of potential severity easily leads to self-restraint in socializing behaviors [33,34]. Concerns about not only one’s own health but also the health of family and friends reportedly affect this self-restraint [15]. Therefore, it is conceivable that someone will refrain from going places with high risk of infection in consideration of the possibility that they will be infected and then transmit their infection to a family member or acquaintance.…”

“…One of the reasons for this may have been that they are not as aware of the risk of getting infected while shopping as other social behaviors. One study reported that young people adhered more closely to the set shopping time [15], which indicates that young people may be more aware that shopping areas can be crowded and thus the risk of infection may be high. Another reason is that older people are less likely to use online shopping for those items or to use a food delivery service [45].…”

“…Women, married people, and high-income earners may be more aware of the risk of infection associated with shopping and with public outings that are unnecessary and nonurgent. Furthermore, high-income groups and people living with family were more likely to shop online [15,45], which helps explain how they can refrain from going out to shop.…”

“…The impact of sociodemographic factors on social behaviors-specifically the act of leaving one's home to visit public spaces-during lockdowns has been investigated mainly in Western countries. It has been reported that women [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] highly educated people, and high-income individuals [11,[19][20][21] are more likely to refrain from going out during a lockdown. Whether a person is married or lives with their family [12,18,19], and whether or not they have a pre-existing condition [13,20], are reportedly not associated with social behaviors during a lockdown.…”

COVID-19 Preventive Behavior Practices and Determinants: A Scoping Review

“…Personal preventive measures which were well-practiced by most respondents in the selected studies are: regular handwashing [13], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [25], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42] except Yehualashet et al [26], wearing face masks [13], [19], [21], [22], [23], [24], [29], [30], [31], [34], [35], [36], [38], [39], [40], [41] except 4 studies [26], [33], [37], [42], cough/sneeze etiquette [13], [20], [22], [23], [24], [26],…”