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Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak
BACKGROUND: The use of restrictive measures such as quarantine draws into sharp relief the dynamic interplay between the individual rights of the citizen on the one hand and the collective rights of the community on the other. Concerns regarding infectious disease outbreaks (SARS, pandemic influenza...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2009
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804616/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20015400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-470 |
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author | Tracy, C Shawn Rea, Elizabeth Upshur, Ross EG |
author_facet | Tracy, C Shawn Rea, Elizabeth Upshur, Ross EG |
author_sort | Tracy, C Shawn |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The use of restrictive measures such as quarantine draws into sharp relief the dynamic interplay between the individual rights of the citizen on the one hand and the collective rights of the community on the other. Concerns regarding infectious disease outbreaks (SARS, pandemic influenza) have intensified the need to understand public perceptions of quarantine and other social distancing measures. METHODS: We conducted a telephone survey of the general population in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technology was used. A final sample of 500 individuals was achieved through standard random-digit dialing. RESULTS: Our data indicate strong public support for the use of quarantine when required and for serious legal sanctions against those who fail to comply. This support is contingent both on the implementation of legal safeguards to protect against inappropriate use and on the provision of psychosocial supports for those affected. CONCLUSION: To engender strong public support for quarantine and other restrictive measures, government officials and public health policy-makers would do well to implement a comprehensive system of supports and safeguards, to educate and inform frontline public health workers, and to engage the public at large in an open dialogue on the ethical use of restrictive measures during infectious disease outbreaks. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2804616 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-28046162010-01-12 Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak Tracy, C Shawn Rea, Elizabeth Upshur, Ross EG BMC Public Health Research article BACKGROUND: The use of restrictive measures such as quarantine draws into sharp relief the dynamic interplay between the individual rights of the citizen on the one hand and the collective rights of the community on the other. Concerns regarding infectious disease outbreaks (SARS, pandemic influenza) have intensified the need to understand public perceptions of quarantine and other social distancing measures. METHODS: We conducted a telephone survey of the general population in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technology was used. A final sample of 500 individuals was achieved through standard random-digit dialing. RESULTS: Our data indicate strong public support for the use of quarantine when required and for serious legal sanctions against those who fail to comply. This support is contingent both on the implementation of legal safeguards to protect against inappropriate use and on the provision of psychosocial supports for those affected. CONCLUSION: To engender strong public support for quarantine and other restrictive measures, government officials and public health policy-makers would do well to implement a comprehensive system of supports and safeguards, to educate and inform frontline public health workers, and to engage the public at large in an open dialogue on the ethical use of restrictive measures during infectious disease outbreaks. BioMed Central 2009-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC2804616/ /pubmed/20015400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-470 Text en Copyright ©2009 Tracy et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research article Tracy, C Shawn Rea, Elizabeth Upshur, Ross EG Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
title | Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
title_full | Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
title_fullStr | Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
title_full_unstemmed | Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
title_short | Public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
title_sort | public perceptions of quarantine: community-based telephone survey following an infectious disease outbreak |
topic | Research article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804616/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20015400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-470 |
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