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Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging

Public health measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission include masking in public places, physical distancing, staying home when ill, avoiding high-risk locations, using a contact tracing app, and being willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. However, adoption of these measures varies greatly. We aimed t...

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Autores principales: Benham, Jamie L., Lang, Raynell, Kovacs Burns, Katharina, MacKean, Gail, Léveillé, Tova, McCormack, Brandi, Sheikh, Hasan, Fullerton, Madison M., Tang, Theresa, Boucher, Jean-Christophe, Constantinescu, Cora, Mourali, Mehdi, Oxoby, Robert J., Manns, Braden J., Hu, Jia, Marshall, Deborah A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7895406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33606782
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246941
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author Benham, Jamie L.
Lang, Raynell
Kovacs Burns, Katharina
MacKean, Gail
Léveillé, Tova
McCormack, Brandi
Sheikh, Hasan
Fullerton, Madison M.
Tang, Theresa
Boucher, Jean-Christophe
Constantinescu, Cora
Mourali, Mehdi
Oxoby, Robert J.
Manns, Braden J.
Hu, Jia
Marshall, Deborah A.
author_facet Benham, Jamie L.
Lang, Raynell
Kovacs Burns, Katharina
MacKean, Gail
Léveillé, Tova
McCormack, Brandi
Sheikh, Hasan
Fullerton, Madison M.
Tang, Theresa
Boucher, Jean-Christophe
Constantinescu, Cora
Mourali, Mehdi
Oxoby, Robert J.
Manns, Braden J.
Hu, Jia
Marshall, Deborah A.
author_sort Benham, Jamie L.
collection PubMed
description Public health measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission include masking in public places, physical distancing, staying home when ill, avoiding high-risk locations, using a contact tracing app, and being willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. However, adoption of these measures varies greatly. We aimed to improve health messaging to increase adherence to public health behaviours to reduce COVID-19 transmission by: 1) determining attitudes towards public health measures and current behaviours; 2) identifying barriers to following public health measures; and, 3) identifying public health communication strategies. We recruited participants from a random panel of 3000 phone numbers across Alberta to fill a predetermined quota: age (18–29; 30–59; 60+ years), geographic location (urban; rural), and whether they had school-age children. Two researchers coded and themed all transcripts. We performed content analysis and in-depth thematic analysis. Nine focus groups were conducted with 2–8 participants/group in August-September, 2020. Several themes were identified: 1) importance of public health measures; 2) compliance with public health measures; 3) critiques of public health messaging; and 4) suggestions for improving public health messaging. Physical distancing and masking were seen as more important than using a contact tracing app. There were mixed views around willingness to take COVID-19 vaccine. Current public health messaging was perceived as conflicting. Participants felt that consistent messaging and using social media to reach younger people would be helpful. In conclusion, these findings provide insights that can be used to inform targeted (e.g., by age, current behaviour) public health communications to encourage behaviors that reduce COVID-19 transmission.
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spelling pubmed-78954062021-03-01 Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging Benham, Jamie L. Lang, Raynell Kovacs Burns, Katharina MacKean, Gail Léveillé, Tova McCormack, Brandi Sheikh, Hasan Fullerton, Madison M. Tang, Theresa Boucher, Jean-Christophe Constantinescu, Cora Mourali, Mehdi Oxoby, Robert J. Manns, Braden J. Hu, Jia Marshall, Deborah A. PLoS One Research Article Public health measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission include masking in public places, physical distancing, staying home when ill, avoiding high-risk locations, using a contact tracing app, and being willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. However, adoption of these measures varies greatly. We aimed to improve health messaging to increase adherence to public health behaviours to reduce COVID-19 transmission by: 1) determining attitudes towards public health measures and current behaviours; 2) identifying barriers to following public health measures; and, 3) identifying public health communication strategies. We recruited participants from a random panel of 3000 phone numbers across Alberta to fill a predetermined quota: age (18–29; 30–59; 60+ years), geographic location (urban; rural), and whether they had school-age children. Two researchers coded and themed all transcripts. We performed content analysis and in-depth thematic analysis. Nine focus groups were conducted with 2–8 participants/group in August-September, 2020. Several themes were identified: 1) importance of public health measures; 2) compliance with public health measures; 3) critiques of public health messaging; and 4) suggestions for improving public health messaging. Physical distancing and masking were seen as more important than using a contact tracing app. There were mixed views around willingness to take COVID-19 vaccine. Current public health messaging was perceived as conflicting. Participants felt that consistent messaging and using social media to reach younger people would be helpful. In conclusion, these findings provide insights that can be used to inform targeted (e.g., by age, current behaviour) public health communications to encourage behaviors that reduce COVID-19 transmission. Public Library of Science 2021-02-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7895406/ /pubmed/33606782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246941 Text en © 2021 Benham et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Benham, Jamie L.
Lang, Raynell
Kovacs Burns, Katharina
MacKean, Gail
Léveillé, Tova
McCormack, Brandi
Sheikh, Hasan
Fullerton, Madison M.
Tang, Theresa
Boucher, Jean-Christophe
Constantinescu, Cora
Mourali, Mehdi
Oxoby, Robert J.
Manns, Braden J.
Hu, Jia
Marshall, Deborah A.
Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging
title Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging
title_full Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging
title_fullStr Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging
title_full_unstemmed Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging
title_short Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging
title_sort attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce covid-19 transmission: a qualitative study to inform public health messaging
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7895406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33606782
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246941
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