The Impact of the first COVID-19 shelter-in-place announcement on social distancing, difficulty in daily activities, and levels of concern in the San Francisco Bay Area: A cross-sectional social media survey
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
The U.S. has experienced an unprecedented number of orders to shelter in place throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to ascertain whether social distancing; difficulty with daily activities; and levels of concern regarding COVID-19 changed after the March 16, 2020 announcement of the nation’s first shelter-in-place orders (SIPO) among individuals living in the seven affected counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Methods
We conducted an online, cross-sectional social media survey from March 14 –April 1, 2020. We measured changes in social distancing behavior; experienced difficulties with daily activities (i.e., access to healthcare, childcare, obtaining essential food and medications); and level of concern regarding COVID-19 after the March 16 shelter-in-place announcement in the San Francisco Bay Area versus elsewhere in the U.S.
Results
In this non-representative sample, the percentage of respondents social distancing all of the time increased following the shelter-in-place announcement in the Bay Area (9.2%, 95% CI: 6.6, 11.9) and elsewhere in the U.S. (3.4%, 95% CI: 2.0, 5.0). Respondents also reported increased difficulty obtaining hand sanitizer, medications, and in particular respondents reported increased difficulty obtaining food in the Bay Area (13.3%, 95% CI: 10.4, 16.3) and elsewhere (8.2%, 95% CI: 6.6, 9.7). We found limited evidence that level of concern regarding the COVID-19 crisis changed following the announcement.
Conclusion
This study characterizes early changes in attitudes, behaviors, and difficulties. As states and localities implement, rollback, and reinstate shelter-in-place orders, ongoing efforts to more fully examine the social, economic, and health impacts of COVID-19, especially among vulnerable populations, are urgently needed.
Article activity feed
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.29.20143156: (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 Demographic information included gender (female, male, other); race/ethnicity (white, Asian/ Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Black or other); year of birth was used to create age categories (25 years or less; 26 – 45; 46 – 65; older than 65 years); education (less than high school, high school or GED, some college, bachelor’s degree); and health insurance (yes, no, don’t know). 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 …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.29.20143156: (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 Demographic information included gender (female, male, other); race/ethnicity (white, Asian/ Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Black or other); year of birth was used to create age categories (25 years or less; 26 – 45; 46 – 65; older than 65 years); education (less than high school, high school or GED, some college, bachelor’s degree); and health insurance (yes, no, don’t know). 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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Limitations: Despite the large number of survey respondents, older adults, Black respondents, and men were underrepresented in this convenience sample. Similarly, household structure of respondents suggests that a large number of respondents did not have children or elderly family members that may have required extra care. Recruitment was convenience sampling via three social media websites. Snowball sampling (through re-posts on Facebook and Twitter) may have further propagated participation among a more homogenous group of respondents. Our results therefore likely underrepresent the true extent of challenges associated with the pandemic across the U.S. and precludes meaningful examination of the early impacts of shelter-in-place orders on economically marginalized and vulnerable population subgroups. 32,33 The cross-sectional nature of this study represents an additional limitation. Because we did not observe changes in social distancing, experienced difficulties, and levels of concern in individuals over time, it is possible that our findings are explained at least in part by compositional effects (i.e., systematic differences in respondents who completed the survey before and after March 16th). Reassuringly, we found limited evidence of systematic differences in measured characteristics before and after the March 16th cutoff with the exception of the gender breakdown among respondents who resided outside of the Bay Area. Finally, the announcement of shelter-in-place order...
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.
-
