COVID-19 behavioural insights study: Preliminary findings from Finland, April-May, 2020

  1. Veronica Cristea
  2. Timothee Dub
  3. Oskari Luomala
  4. Jonas Sivelä

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Abstract

The COVID-19 monitoring behavioural insights study was conducted from April-May 2020 in Finland. Respondents reported feeling confident protecting themselves against COVID-19 infection. Worries shifted from overloading the health system (mean value 5.5 [95% CI: 5.4-5.6]) to mental health concerns (mean value 5.3 [95% CI 5.2-5.4]). Maintaining physical distancing from families and friends decreased by 7% and 6%. Respondents mostly agreed that if a vaccine would become available, they would get it. The decrease in acceptance of recommended measures needs further analysis, but current results provide evidence to support the response.

Key points

  • Currently limited information available on the complex interaction between epidemiology, media attention, pandemic control measures, risk perception and compliance with public health measures.

  • Despite the relatively high risk perception of a possible infection with COVID-19, we observed a steady decrease in adherence to public health measures.

  • Throughout the study, information-seeking behaviour shifted.

  • We observed a decrease in acceptance among the participants in regards to avoiding physical contact.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.11.20210724: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.11.20210724v1 on medRxiv