Economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and public health measures: results from an anonymous online survey in Thailand, Malaysia, the UK, Italy and Slovenia
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Abstract
To understand the impact of COVID-19 and public health measures on different social groups, we conducted a mixed-methods study in five countries (‘SEBCOV—social, ethical and behavioural aspects of COVID-19’). Here, we report the results of the online survey.
Study design and statistical analysis
Overall, 5058 respondents from Thailand, Malaysia, the UK, Italy and Slovenia completed the self-administered survey between May and June 2020. Poststratification weighting was applied, and associations between categorical variables assessed. Frequency counts and percentages were used to summarise categorical data. Associations between categorical variables were assessed using Pearson’s χ 2 test. Data were analysed in Stata 15.0
Results
Among the five countries, Thai respondents reported having been most, and Slovenian respondents least, affected economically. The following factors were associated with greater negative economic impacts: being 18–24 years or 65 years or older; lower education levels; larger households; having children under 18 in the household and and having flexible/no income. Regarding social impact, respondents expressed most concern about their social life, physical health, mental health and well-being.
There were large differences between countries in terms of voluntary behavioural change, and in compliance and agreement with COVID-19 restrictions. Overall, self-reported compliance was higher among respondents who self-reported a high understanding of COVID-19. UK respondents felt able to cope the longest and Thai respondents the shortest with only going out for essential needs or work. Many respondents reported seeing news perceived to be fake, the proportion varying between countries, with education level and self-reported levels of understanding of COVID-19.
Conclusions
Our data showed that COVID-19 and public health measures have uneven economic and social impacts on people from different countries and social groups. Understanding the factors associated with these impacts can help to inform future public health interventions and mitigate their negative consequences.
Trial registration number
TCTR20200401002.
Article activity feed
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.26.20209361: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and limitations: Our online survey enabled us to capture people’s experiences and concerns in multiple domains, in five countries, all of which had restrictions in place, during the relatively early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. To our knowledge, the SEBCOV study was one of the largest international mixed-methods studies …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.26.20209361: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and limitations: Our online survey enabled us to capture people’s experiences and concerns in multiple domains, in five countries, all of which had restrictions in place, during the relatively early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. To our knowledge, the SEBCOV study was one of the largest international mixed-methods studies conducted on the impact of COVID-19. To maximise the number of respondents and the likelihood of getting honest answers, the survey was completely anonymous. Due to the relatively large sample of respondents in each country, we were able to compare population segments (e.g. men versus women or younger versus older people) in our overall cohort and at country level. We did not aim to obtain nationally representative samples and acknowledge that although we used weighting strategies in our analysis, our results may not be fully representative of the populations in the respective countries. Overall, there was a high proportion of respondents who were healthcare workers (19%), and some variation in this proportion between countries. This may have influenced the country level analysis, in particular in the areas of perceived understanding, compliance/agreement and communication preferences. Because the survey was online, only people who were literate, had internet access, and had access to computers or smartphones could take part. Due to COVID-19 related restrictions, it was not possible to conduct face-to-face data collection to reach groups who were ...
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.
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