TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing the perceived effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-Cov-2 transmission risk
T2 - an experimental study in Europe
AU - Veltri, Giuseppe Alessandro
AU - Steinert, Janina Isabel
AU - Sternberg, Henrike
AU - Galizzi, Matteo M.
AU - Fasolo, Barbara
AU - Kourtidis, Ploutarchos
AU - Büthe, Tim
AU - Gaskell, George
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - We conduct a large (N = 6567) online experiment to measure the features of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that citizens of six European countries perceive to lower the risk of transmission of SARS-Cov-2 the most. We collected data in Bulgaria (n = 1069), France (n = 1108), Poland (n = 1104), Italy (n = 1087), Spain (n = 1102) and Sweden (n = 1097). Based on the features of the most widely adopted public health guidelines to reduce SARS-Cov-2 transmission (mask wearing vs not, outdoor vs indoor contact, short vs 90 min meetings, few vs many people present, and physical distancing of 1 or 2 m), we conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to estimate the public’s perceived risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in scenarios that presented mutually exclusive constellations of these features. Our findings indicate that participants’ perception of transmission risk was most influenced by the NPI attributes of mask-wearing and outdoor meetings and the least by NPI attributes that focus on physical distancing, meeting duration, and meeting size. Differentiating by country, gender, age, cognitive style (reflective or intuitive), and perceived freight of COVID-19 moreover allowed us to identify important differences between subgroups. Our findings highlight the importance of improving health policy communication and citizens’ health literacy about the design of NPIs and the transmission risk of SARS-Cov-2 and potentially future viruses.
AB - We conduct a large (N = 6567) online experiment to measure the features of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that citizens of six European countries perceive to lower the risk of transmission of SARS-Cov-2 the most. We collected data in Bulgaria (n = 1069), France (n = 1108), Poland (n = 1104), Italy (n = 1087), Spain (n = 1102) and Sweden (n = 1097). Based on the features of the most widely adopted public health guidelines to reduce SARS-Cov-2 transmission (mask wearing vs not, outdoor vs indoor contact, short vs 90 min meetings, few vs many people present, and physical distancing of 1 or 2 m), we conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to estimate the public’s perceived risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in scenarios that presented mutually exclusive constellations of these features. Our findings indicate that participants’ perception of transmission risk was most influenced by the NPI attributes of mask-wearing and outdoor meetings and the least by NPI attributes that focus on physical distancing, meeting duration, and meeting size. Differentiating by country, gender, age, cognitive style (reflective or intuitive), and perceived freight of COVID-19 moreover allowed us to identify important differences between subgroups. Our findings highlight the importance of improving health policy communication and citizens’ health literacy about the design of NPIs and the transmission risk of SARS-Cov-2 and potentially future viruses.
KW - COVID-19
KW - DCE
KW - NPI
KW - Risk behaviour
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186221090&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-55447-1
DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-55447-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 38418636
AN - SCOPUS:85186221090
VL - 14
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 4857
ER -
