Impacts of school closure due to COVID-19 on the mobility trend of Japanese citizens

  1. Nguyen Hai Nam
  2. Anh PN. Nguyen
  3. Bao-Tran Do Le
  4. Abdelrahman Gamil Gad
  5. Abdelrahman Sherif Mohamed Abdelnaeim Abdalla
  6. Adnan Safi
  7. Anh Gia Pham
  8. Vo Duc Khanh
  9. Nguyen Tien Huy

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Abstract

School closure was the only main control measure that Japan took into action from late February to late March in 2020. Accurate evaluation of how Japanese citizens responded to the impact of school closure remains a challenge. Data from the Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Report was used to analyze the mobility trend of Japanese citizens regarding six categories, including retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, parks, transit stations, workplace, and residential. The median percentage of mobility in all 47 prefectures of Japan was calculated during five periods of time, including one week before school closure, one week, two weeks, three weeks, and four weeks after school closure. There was a significant decline in the mobility trend of transit stations, grocery and pharmacy, parks, retail and recreation, and workplace at the moment after school closure compared to the prior period. Inversely, the mobility trend in staying at home remarkably increased following the implementation of school closure. Our study determined a significant change in the mobility trend of Japanese citizens before and after school closure. These data reflected the responsibility and the consciousness of Japanese citizens in mitigating COVID-19.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.30.21259816: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsField Sample Permit: These six categories recorded in the Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports were defined as (1) retail and recreation: the mobility trend in closed spaces such as restaurants, coffee shops, department stores, museums, libraries, and movie theaters; (2) grocery and pharmacy: the mobility trend in locations such as supermarkets, convenience stores, markets, and drugstores; (3) parks: the mobility trend in public areas such as parks, beaches, and harbours; (4) transit stations: the mobility trend in public transportation such as subways, railways, and buses; (5) workplace: the mobility trend in going to workplaces; and (6) residential: the mobility trend in staying at home.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Database: Google provides the Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports by using historical GPS data of users around the world12.
    Google
    suggested: (Google, RRID:SCR_017097)
    Since the mobility report was a line graph, we used WebPlotDigitizer software to extract the percentage of these six categories in all 47 prefectures of Japan (https://automeris.io/WebPlotDigitizer/).
    WebPlotDigitizer
    suggested: (WebPlotDigitizer, RRID:SCR_013996)
    All statistical analyses were performed by JMP version 12 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA).
    SAS Institute
    suggested: (Statistical Analysis System, RRID:SCR_008567)

    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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Besides, we acknowledge that our study has several limitations. Since Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports only recorded the location history of people who had a Google account and enabled the setting for location history, data of our study cannot represent the mobility trend of the whole Japanese population. Additionally, evaluation of the influence of school closure was restricted within four weeks since its application. Thus, this physical distancing measure requires a monthly assessment to identify its long-term potency. In conclusion, the impacts of school closure could diversely vary among countries with different population structures and various cultural identities. By using the COVID-19 Community Mobility Report from Google, our study quantified the short-term effects of school closure on the mobility of Japanese citizens for retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, parks, transit stations, workplace, and residential and determined a significant change in the mobility trend of Japanese citizens before and after school closure. In Japan, even though the policies and the control measures of the government to manage the outbreak just stopped at the level of strong recommendation but not compulsion, these data reflected the responsibility and the awareness of Japanese citizens to a certain degree. While the efficacy of school closure is still debatable, its capability to control the pandemic cannot be ignored. Closing schools had reduced the social interactions...

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.30.21259816v1 on medRxiv