Adherence to COVID-19 protective behaviours in India from May to December 2020: evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal survey.
BMJ Open
; 12(2): e058065, 2022 02 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1666422
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, behavioural interventions to reduce disease transmission have been central to public health policy worldwide. Sustaining individual protective behaviour is especially important in low-income and middle-income settings, where health systems have fewer resources and access to vaccination is limited. This study seeks to assess time trends in COVID-19 protective behaviour in India.DESIGN:
Nationally representative, panel-based, longitudinal study.SETTING:
We conducted a panel survey of Indian households to understand how the adoption of COVID-19 protective behaviours has changed over time. Our data span peaks and valleys of disease transmission over May-December 2020.PARTICIPANTS:
Respondents included 3719 adults from 1766 Indian households enrolled in the Harmonised Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India.ANALYSIS:
We used ordinary least squares regression analysis to quantify time trends in protective behaviours.RESULTS:
We find a 30.6 percentage point (95% CI (26.7 to 34.5); p<0.01) decline in protective behaviours related to social distancing over the observation period. Mask wearing and handwashing, in contrast, decreased by only 4.3 percentage points (95% CI (0.97 to 7.6); p<0.05) from a high base. Our conclusions are unchanged after adjusting for recorded COVID-19 caseload and nationwide COVID-19 containment policy; we also observe significant declines across socioeconomic strata spanning age, gender, education and urbanicity.CONCLUSION:
We argue that these changes reflect, at least in part, 'COVID-19 fatigue,' where adherence to social distancing becomes more difficult over time irrespective of the surrounding disease environment.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
BMJ Open
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
BMJOPEN-2021-058065
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