Effectiveness of Innovation Media for Improving Physical Distancing Compliance during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Quasi-Experiment in Thailand

Abstract

To flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections, with no effective pharmacological interventions or vaccine available in the imminent future, public health responses must continue to rely on non-pharmacological interventions. We developed three innovation media to promote physical distancing compliance (i.e., a fearful picture, a red one-way arrow sign, and a norm-speech sticker). This study aimed to compare physical distancing compliance between our interventions and conventional interventions. Our study was a quasi-experiment, and we observed a representative sample of university canteen customers via closed-circuit television (CCTV). Each intervention was monitored over non-prime-time hours, per day, on 6–9 August 2020. Among the 400 participants (100 participants in each group), their age group, gender, and physical distancing practices were observed in a university canteen. The number of failures of physical distancing ranged between 93.8% and 17.6%, and on average between 84.2% and 34.2%, dependent on the intervention and the marking point. There were no statistically significant differences in promoting physical distancing compliance between our interventions compared with conventional interventions. However, the participants tended to practice physical distancing at the back of the queue more than at the front, regardless of the interventions.

Interventions to promote physical distancing behaviour during infectious disease pandemics or epidemics: A systematic review

“…The 6 studies that met the inclusion criteria reported the effect of 14 interventions (and 3 other control interventions) and included over 5531 participants (One study, Hoeben et al, 2021 , did not report the N due to the nature of the observational study design). The studies included randomized controlled trials ( n = 4344; Bos et al, 2020 ; Khoa et al, 2021 ; Lunn et al, 2020 ); non-randomized trials ( n = 1187; Blanken et al, 2020 ; Chutiphimon et al, 2020 ); and a natural experiment ( n = unknown; Hoeben et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Studies were based in Europe ( Bos et al, 2020 ; Blanken et al, 2020 ; Hoeben et al, 2021 ; Lunn et al, 2020 ), Asia ( Chutiphimon et al, 2020 ); and North America ( Khoa et al, 2021 ). Data were collected between January and August 2020 (See Table S2 ).…”

“…Data were collected between January and August 2020 (See Table S2 ). Study samples were from the general population ( Bos et al, 2020 ; Hoeben et al, 2021 ; Khoa et al, 2021 ; Lunn et al, 2020 ); university staff, students, graduates, and visitors ( Blanken et al, 2020 ; Chutiphimon et al, 2020 ) and data was collected between January 2020 (pre pandemic comparison) and August 2020 (see Table S3 in Supplementary Materials).…”

“…Unidirectional walking directions + immediate buzzer vs. unidirectional walking directions Buzzers were effective in reducing distancing violations when the feedback from them was immediate and when visitors received a demonstration of the buzzer. d = .42 Chutiphimon et al (2020) Thailand University canteen setting University staff, students and others ( N = 400) 83% were aged 19–64 years Behaviour (from CCTV recordings were used to note success and failure to distance) was measured after exposure to three types of floor decal marker that were used to mark out 2m gaps (there were 5 markings (1–2 were side by side at the counter; 3–5 were queued adjacent) 1. Red arrow floor decal (red arrow between footprint stickers at 2m distance) 2.…”

Dilemmas in Managing the COVID-19 Crisis

“…These solutions used at the beginning of the pandemic (March-April in Europe) and during its second wave (October-November in Europe) are concerned bivalent. This is because, on the one hand, they have introduced a partial economic crisis in industries such as aviation, gastronomy, hotel, fitness, events, and culture, but they have also created the conditions for the dynamic development of industries based on Internet communication and forced the development of many companies toward increased online services in all industries (Açikgöz and Günay 2020;Chutiphimon et al 2020;Zhang et al 2020). For example, new applications have been developed and service providers have started selling their services online (e.g., fitness, training, accounting).…”