Field observations and survey evidence to assess predictors of mask wearing across different outdoor activities in an Argentine city during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

We here studied some potential factors underlying variation in compliance with preventive behaviors against COVID‐19 by studying mask wearing during outdoor recreational activities in a midsize city of Argentina in 2020. The originality of present research relies on the complementation of observational (N = 15,507) and survey (N = 578) data and in assessing the determinants of and disposition to the same preventive behavior across activities. In Study 1, we did 8 weeks of unobtrusive systematic observation of mask wearing in outdoor recreational sites as a function of activity (walking, running, and cycling). In Study 2, we ran an online survey (concomitant with the last weeks of the observational study) to measure self‐reported mask use and relevant beliefs, including self‐ and other‐regarding motives. Behavioral observations showed that mask wearing declined over time for the three activities as predicted from a social dilemma perspective; nonetheless, compliance significantly differed across activities. Self‐reported mask use was predicted by the perceived risk of contagion for the self and for others, perceived comfort costs of wearing masks, and social norms, but not by perceived illness severity or mask effectiveness. We discuss some implications and limitations of present findings for the development of preventive strategies to reduce COVID‐19 transmission.

Compliance with Barrier Gestures during COVID-19 Pandemic as a Function of the Context: A Longitudinal Observational Survey at the University of Liège

“…Already decreasing during the third orange code teaching period, the lower compliance with contactless greetings could reflect a lesser attention paid by students to comply with barrier gestures beyond any controlled by dedicated persons. Such a decline of compliance with mask wearing over time was reported previously [ 19 ]. In the present situation, the acceleration of vaccination deployment in the population (19.3% of Walloon adults were fully vaccinated by 24 May 2021 vs. 40.6% by of 21 June 2021 [ 26 ]) and the decrease in the number of new cases each week (from 4585 in week 21 to 615 in week 25 vs. 9742 in week 11 in Wallonia [ 27 ]) may have induced a lower risk perception.…”

“…In the present situation, the acceleration of vaccination deployment in the population (19.3% of Walloon adults were fully vaccinated by 24 May 2021 vs. 40.6% by of 21 June 2021 [ 26 ]) and the decrease in the number of new cases each week (from 4585 in week 21 to 615 in week 25 vs. 9742 in week 11 in Wallonia [ 27 ]) may have induced a lower risk perception. As highlighted in previous studies [ 10 , 11 , 19 ], a lower risk perception was associated with a lower compliance with barrier gestures and could, therefore, explain a relaxation of their implementation. That said, this hypothesis should be confirmed, as a study realized in 10 universities around the world [ 28 ] showed that compliance with barrier gestures was not uniformly influenced by the same factors, given the underlying differences between hygiene measures and measures related to physical distancing.…”

“…The former refers to the extent to which individuals perceived that it was the norm to adopt the barrier gestures, while the latter refers to the availability of the organizational and technical infrastructure that supports the implementation [ 8 ]. Although several studies focused on the acceptability, the adhesion, and the self-declared compliance of the population to barrier gestures [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], there are fewer studies assessing the compliance with barrier gestures directly by observational methods [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] and/or taking into account the contextual factors as mentioned. This has limited our understanding of how the organization and management of barrier gestures can be efficiently improved, from a public health and institutional perspective.…”

Does pre-COVID impulsive behaviour predict adherence to hygiene and social distancing measures in youths following the COVID-19 pandemic onset? Evidence from a South African longitudinal study.

“…Alternatively, it may be that the phrasing of the items (asking for instance how frequently a behaviour was avoided, rather than engaged in) could have affected reported frequencies and thus the validity of the results. Varying compliance with different types of measures has also been established in the Argentinian context [50], with divergent factors predicting engagement in different measures. Overall, there will be a need to better understand and address intersecting vulnerabilities (race, gender, poverty [reflected for instance in high population density, large households, communal water sources], and geopolitics) in sub-Saharan Africa contexts [48,51,52] to increase rates of compliance with protective measures in future pandemics.…”

Masks, Cameras and Social Pressure

“…Third, and more narrowly, we contribute to the literature on the social determinants of face mask wearing. The existing papers in this literature rely either on vignette-based experiments and surveys (Bokemper et al, 2021;Barceló and Sheen, 2020;Rudert and Janke, 2021;Goldberg et al, 2020;Barile et al, 2021) or instead observational data (Freidin et al, 2022;Woodcock and Schultz, 2021). We contribute to this literature by conducting the first ever randomised field experiment on the social determinants of face mask use.…”