U.S. regional differences in physical distancing: Evaluating racial and socioeconomic divides during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Abstract
Health varies by U.S. region of residence. Despite regional heterogeneity in the outbreak of COVID-19, regional differences in physical distancing behaviors over time are relatively unknown. This study examines regional variation in physical distancing trends during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigates variation by race and socioeconomic status (SES) within regions. Data from the 2015–2019 five-year American Community Survey were matched with anonymized location pings data from over 20 million mobile devices (SafeGraph, Inc.) at the Census block group level. We visually present trends in the stay-at-home proportion by Census region, race, and SES throughout 2020 and conduct regression analyses to examine these patterns. From March to December, the stay-at-home proportion was highest in the Northeast (0.25 in March to 0.35 in December) and lowest in the South (0.24 to 0.30). Across all regions, the stay-at-home proportion was higher in block groups with a higher percentage of Blacks, as Blacks disproportionately live in urban areas where stay-at-home rates were higher (0.009 [CI: 0.008, 0.009]). In the South, West, and Midwest, higher-SES block groups stayed home at the lowest rates pre-pandemic; however, this trend reversed throughout March before converging in the months following. In the Northeast, lower-SES block groups stayed home at comparable rates to higher-SES block groups during the height of the pandemic but diverged in the months following. Differences in physical distancing behaviors exist across U.S. regions, with a pronounced Southern and rural disadvantage. Results can be used to guide reopening and COVID-19 mitigation plans.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.27.21256210: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.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: Our results should be interpreted in light of limitations. First, within each block group there could be higher mobile phones usage for those of higher SES (30). Low SES individuals may be unable to pay for cell phones and bills, and older individuals may not use location-transmitting cell phones (62, 63). This may lead to …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.27.21256210: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.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: Our results should be interpreted in light of limitations. First, within each block group there could be higher mobile phones usage for those of higher SES (30). Low SES individuals may be unable to pay for cell phones and bills, and older individuals may not use location-transmitting cell phones (62, 63). This may lead to an overestimation of the percentage of residents staying at home among these demographics. Relatedly, mobile phone location data may have larger errors in low-SES areas due to poor quality of GPS signals or noises. However, assuming these issues exist to a comparable extent across Census regions, our observed regional differences in physical distancing hold. Second, our measure of physical distancing does not include other virus avoidance practices (e.g., mask-wearing; maintaining six feet of distance from others). It is possible that individuals or groups may adhere to some practices but not others; for instance, if individuals cannot stay at home, they may instead practice mask-wearing at higher rates. Examination of their stay-at-home practices would therefore be an incomplete characterization of physical distancing. Additionally, SafeGraph’s definition of “home” may lead to larger measurement errors for dense urban areas where residents typically reside in small apartment buildings than for less urban areas. Moreover, the implication of staying completely at “home” for urban and rural residents may differ, considering the large difference i...
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.
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