scholarly journals An Early Examination: Psychological, Health, and Economic Correlates and Determinants of Social Distancing Amidst COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hohjin Im ◽  
Christopher Ahn ◽  
Peiyi Wang ◽  
Chuansheng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Relative Reduction ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
At Risk Populations ◽  
General Mobility

With the exponential spread of COVID-19 across the United States, federal and local government agencies have issued orders for residents to shelter-in-place. This study utilizes data collected from Unacast Inc. spanning observations of 3,142 counties across 50 states and the District of Columbia (N = 230,846) from March 8, 2020 to April 13, 2020 (n = 104,930) and from April 14, 2020 to May 24, 2020 (n = 131,912) in a 3-level multilevel model to examine the correlates of social distancing behavior, as measured by the relative reduction in 1) distance traveled and 2) non-essential visitations since baseline pre-COVID-19 times. Results indicate that educational attainment and political partisanship were the most consistent correlates of social distancing. State-level indicators of culture appeared to have differentiated effects depending on whether the model outcomes were reduction in general mobility or to non-essential venues. State-level neuroticism was generally positively related to social distancing, but states marked by high neuroticism were slower to engage in such behaviors. Counties and states characterized as already engaging in preventive health measures (e.g., vaccination rates, preparedness for at-risk populations) enjoyed quicker engagement in social distancing. Specific implications of findings and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals An Early Examination: Psychological, Health, and Economic Correlates and Determinants of Social Distancing Amidst COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hohjin Im ◽  
Christopher Ahn ◽  
Peiyi Wang ◽  
Chuansheng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
State Level ◽  
Relative Reduction ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
At Risk Populations ◽  
General Mobility

Federal and local government agencies were quick to issue orders for residents to shelter-in-place in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This study utilized data collected from Unacast Inc., spanning observations of 3,142 counties across 50 states and the District of Columbia (N = 230,846) from March 8, 2020 to April 13, 2020 (n = 104,930) and from April 14, 2020 to May 24, 2020 (n = 131,912) in a 3-level multilevel model to examine the correlates of social distancing behavior, as measured by the relative reduction in (1) distance traveled and (2) non-essential visitations since baseline pre-COVID-19 times. Results showed that educational attainment and political partisanship were the most consistent correlates of social distancing. State-level indicators of culture appeared to have differentiated effects depending on whether the model outcomes were reduction in general mobility or to non-essential venues. State-level neuroticism was generally positively related to social distancing, but states marked by high neuroticism were slower to engage in such behaviors. Counties and states characterized as already engaging in preventive health measures (e.g., vaccination rates, preparedness for at-risk populations) enjoyed quicker engagement in social distancing. Specific implications of findings and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals Pandemic Politics: Timing State-Level Social Distancing Responses to COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Adolph ◽  
Kenya Amano ◽  
Bree Bang-Jensen ◽  
Nancy Fullman ◽  
John Wilkerson
Keyword(s):  
Event History Analysis ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

AbstractSocial distancing policies are critical but economically painful measures to flatten the curve against emergent infectious diseases. As the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spread throughout the United States in early 2020, the federal government issued social distancing recommendations but left to the states the most difficult and consequential decisions restricting behavior, such as canceling events, closing schools and businesses, and issuing stay-at-home orders. We present an original dataset of state-level social distancing policy responses to the epidemic and explore how political partisanship, COVID-19 caseload, and policy diffusion explain the timing of governors’ decisions to mandate social distancing. An event history analysis of five social distancing policies across all fifty states reveals the most important predictors are political: all else equal, Republican governors and governors from states with more Trump supporters were slower to adopt social distancing policies. These delays are likely to produce significant, on-going harm to public health.

scholarly journals The Twitter Social Mobility Index: Measuring Social Distancing Practices With Geolocated Tweets (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paiheng Xu ◽  
Mark Dredze ◽  
David A Broniatowski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mobility Index ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Twitter Data

BACKGROUND Social distancing is an important component of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Minimizing social interactions and travel reduces the rate at which the infection spreads and “flattens the curve” so that the medical system is better equipped to treat infected individuals. However, it remains unclear how the public will respond to these policies as the pandemic continues. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to present the Twitter Social Mobility Index, a measure of social distancing and travel derived from Twitter data. We used public geolocated Twitter data to measure how much users travel in a given week. METHODS We collected 469,669,925 tweets geotagged in the United States from January 1, 2019, to April 27, 2020. We analyzed the aggregated mobility variance of a total of 3,768,959 Twitter users at the city and state level from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS We found a large reduction (61.83%) in travel in the United States after the implementation of social distancing policies. However, the variance by state was high, ranging from 38.54% to 76.80%. The eight states that had not issued statewide social distancing orders as of the start of April ranked poorly in terms of travel reduction: Arkansas (45), Iowa (37), Nebraska (35), North Dakota (22), South Carolina (38), South Dakota (46), Oklahoma (50), Utah (14), and Wyoming (53). We are presenting our findings on the internet and will continue to update our analysis during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS We observed larger travel reductions in states that were early adopters of social distancing policies and smaller changes in states without such policies. The results were also consistent with those based on other mobility data to a certain extent. Therefore, geolocated tweets are an effective way to track social distancing practices using a public resource, and this tracking may be useful as part of ongoing pandemic response planning.

scholarly journals The COVID States Project #26: Trajectory of COVID-19-related behaviors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lazer ◽  
Mauricio Santillana ◽  
Roy H. Perlis ◽  
Alexi Quintana ◽  
Katherine Ognyanova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Upper Midwest ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Current State ◽  
Change Behavior ◽  
Current Prevalence ◽  
The Us ◽  
National Trends

The current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is dire, with circumstances in the Upper Midwest particularly grim. In contrast, multiple countries around the world have shown that temporary changes in human behavior and consistent precautions, such as effective testing, contact tracing, and isolation, can slow transmission of COVID-19, allowing local economies to remain open and societal activities to approach normalcy as of today. These include island countries such as New Zealand, Taiwan, Iceland and Australia, and continental countries such as Norway, Uruguay, Thailand, Finland, and South Korea. These successes demonstrate that coordinated action to change behavior can control the pandemic. In this report, we evaluate how the human behaviors that have been shown to inhibit the spread of COVID-19 have evolved across the US since April, 2020.Our report is based on surveys that the COVID States Project has been conducting approximately every month since April in all 50 US states plus the District of Columbia. We address four primary questions:1) What are the national trends in social distancing behaviors and mask wearing since April?2) What are the trends among particular population subsets?3) What are the trends across individual states plus DC?4) What is the relationship, at the state level, between social distancing behaviors and mask wearing with the current prevalence of COVID-19?

scholarly journals Effects of Government Mandated Social Distancing Measures on Cumulative Incidence of COVID-19 in the United States and its Most Populated Cities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhuma Krishnamachari ◽  
Alexander Morris ◽  
Diane Zastrow ◽  
Andrew Dsida ◽  
Brian Harper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Cumulative Incidence ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reverse Causality ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
School Closing ◽  
Adjusted Rate

AbstractCOVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has quickly spread throughout the world, necessitating assessment of the most effective containment methods. Very little research exists on the effects of social distancing measures on this pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of government implemented social distancing measures on the cumulative incidence rates of COVID-19 in the United States on a state level, and in the 25 most populated cities, while adjusting for socio-demographic risk factors. The social distancing variables assessed in this study were: days to closing of non-essential business; days to stay home orders; days to restrictions on gathering, days to restaurant closings and days to school closing. Using negative binomial regression, adjusted rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated comparing two levels of a binary variable: “above median value,” and “median value and below” for days to implementing a social distancing measure. For city level data, the effects of these social distancing variables were also assessed in high (above median value) vs low (median value and below) population density cities. For the state level analysis, days to school closing was associated with cumulative incidence, with an adjusted rate ratio of 1.59 (95% CI:1.03,2.44), p=0.04 at 35 days. Some results were counterintuitive, including inverse associations between cumulative incidence and days to closure of non-essential business and restrictions on gatherings. This finding is likely due to reverse causality, where locations with slower growth rates initially chose not to implement measures, and later implemented measures when they absolutely needed to respond to increasing rates of infection. Effects of social distancing measures seemed to vary by population density in cities. Our results suggest that the effect of social distancing measures may differ between states and cities and between locations with different population densities. States and cities need individual approaches to containment of an epidemic, with an awareness of their own structure in terms of crowding and socio-economic variables. In an effort to reduce infection rates, cities may want to implement social distancing in advance of state mandates.

scholarly journals Statewide Interventions and Covid-19 Mortality in the United States: An Observational Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadir Yehya ◽  
Atheendar Venkataramani ◽  
Michael O Harhay
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
State Level ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Test Model ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Social Distancing

ABSTRACT Background Social distancing is encouraged to mitigate viral spreading during outbreaks. However, the association between distancing and patient-centered outcomes in Covid-19 has not been demonstrated. In the United States social distancing orders are implemented at the state level with variable timing of onset. Emergency declarations and school closures were two early statewide interventions. Methods To determine whether later distancing interventions were associated with higher mortality, we performed a state-level analysis in 55,146 Covid-19 non-survivors. We tested the association between timing of emergency declarations and school closures with 28-day mortality using multivariable negative binomial regression. Day 1 for each state was set to when they recorded ≥ 10 deaths. We performed sensitivity analyses to test model assumptions. Results At time of analysis, 37 of 50 states had ≥ 10 deaths and 28 follow-up days. Both later emergency declaration (adjusted mortality rate ratio [aMRR] 1.05 per day delay, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.09, p=0.040) and later school closure (aMRR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.09, p=0.008) were associated with more deaths. When assessing all 50 states and setting day 1 to the day a state recorded its first death, delays in declaring an emergency (aMRR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.09, p=0.020) or closing schools (aMRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09, p<0.001) were associated with more deaths. Results were unchanged when excluding New York and New Jersey. Conclusions Later statewide emergency declarations and school closure were associated with higher Covid-19 mortality. Each day of delay increased mortality risk 5 to 6%.

scholarly journals Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: quantifying the practice in Michigan – a “hotspot state” early in the pandemic – using a volunteer-based online survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Cassidy-Bushrow ◽  
Mohammed Baseer ◽  
Karen Kippen ◽  
Albert M. Levin ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Executive Orders ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Potential Factors

Abstract Background Public Health policies related to social distancing efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic helped slow the infection rate. However, individual-level factors associated with social distancing are largely unknown. We sought to examine social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, an infection “hotspot” state in the United States early in the pandemic. Methods Two surveys were distributed to Michigan residents via email lists and social media following COVID-19 related state mandates in March; 45,691 adults responded to the first survey and 8512 to the second. Staying home ≥ 3 out of 5 previous days defined having more social distancing. Logistic regression models were used to examine potential factors associated with more social distancing. Results Most respondents were women (86% in Survey 1, 87% in Survey 2). In Survey 1, 63% reported more social distancing, increasing to 78% in Survey 2. Female sex and having someone (or self) sick in the home were consistently associated with higher social distancing, while increasing age was positively associated in Survey 1 but negatively associated in Survey 2. Most respondents felt social distancing policies were important (88% in Survey 1; 91% in Survey 2). Conclusions Michiganders responding to the surveys were both practicing and supportive of social distancing. State-level executive orders positively impacted behaviors early in the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan. Additional supports are needed to help vulnerable populations practice social distancing, including older individuals.

scholarly journals State-level needs for social distancing and contact tracing to contain COVID-19 in the United States 

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihsueh A. Chiu ◽  
Rebecca Fischer ◽  
Martial L. Ndeffo-Mbah
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
District Of Columbia ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Epidemic Curve ◽  
Dynamics And Control ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Starting in mid-May 2020, many US states began relaxing social distancing measures that were put in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. To evaluate the impact of relaxation of restrictions on COVID-19 dynamics and control, we developed a transmission dynamic model and calibrated it to US state-level COVID-19 cases and deaths. We used this model to evaluate the impact of social distancing, testing and contact tracing on the COVID-19 epidemic in each state. As of July 22, 2020, we found only three states were on track to curtail their epidemic curve. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia may have to double their testing and/or tracing rates and/or rolling back reopening by 25%, while eight states require an even greater measure of combined testing, tracing, and distancing. Increased testing and contact tracing capacity is paramount for mitigating the recent large-scale increases in U.S. cases and deaths.

scholarly journals Getting Personal: How Childhood Vaccination Policies Shape the Landscape of Vaccine Exemptions

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Garnier ◽  
Emma R Nedell ◽  
Saad B Omer ◽  
Shweta Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Clustering Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Coverage ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Childhood Vaccination ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Exemption Policy ◽  
Epidemiological Effects

Abstract Background State-mandated school entry immunization requirements in the United States play an important role in achieving high vaccine coverage, but variations in vaccine exemption policies result in a patchwork of vaccine coverage across the country. Methods In this study, we evaluate epidemiological effects and spatial variations in nonmedical exemption (NME) rates in the context of vaccine policies. We first analyze the correlation between NME rates and vaccine coverage for 3 significant childhood vaccinations. Furthermore, we assess the effects of policy changes in a subset of states, using a correlative approach at the state level and performing a clustering analysis at the county level. Results We find that higher rates of exemptions are associated with lower vaccination rates of school-aged children in all cases. In a subset of states where exemption policy has recently changed, we show that the effects on statewide NME rates vary widely and that decreases in NMEs can lead to an increase in other types of exemptions. Finally, our clustering analysis in California, Illinois, and Connecticut shows that policy changes affect the spatial distribution of NMEs. Conclusions Our work suggests that vaccination policies have significant impacts on patterns of herd immunity. Our findings can be used to develop evidence-based vaccine legislation.

scholarly journals The Pharmacists' Role in Disease Outbreaks: Navigating the Dynamics of Uncertainty Before, During, and After Disease Outbreaks

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 384-389
Author(s):  
Jack Guerci ◽  
Christopher T. Campbell ◽  
Stacey D. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The United States ◽  
Efficacy And Safety ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
The Past ◽  
At Risk Populations

Vaccination rates are on the decline as parents avoid doctor's visits with their children. In addition, the antivaccination movement has led to a significant portion of the population remaining unvaccinated or undervaccinated. Outbreaks in the United States within the past year have highlighted the need for better education and communication regarding the efficacy and safety of vaccinations as well as important steps to reduce disease transmission. Patients may be fearful and have questions about how these outbreaks will affect themselves and their families, especially those in immunocompromised states and pregnant women. Pharmacists are poised to provide this education and start a dialogue with patients and other health care professionals with regard to disease outbreaks. Additionally, in times of outbreak, pharmacists encounter obscure questions from both healthy and at-risk populations that fear contraction of a particular disease. The purpose of this commentary is to describe previous outbreaks and to explore the pharmacists' role in disease prevention.

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