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Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality

In the absence of vaccines or causal therapies, behavioral measures such as wearing face masks and maintaining social distance are central to fighting Covid-19. Yet, their benefits are often questioned by the population and the level of adherence to the measures is variable. We examined in represent...

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Autores principales: Margraf, Jürgen, Brailovskaia, Julia, Schneider, Silvia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8009358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33784361
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249392
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author Margraf, Jürgen
Brailovskaia, Julia
Schneider, Silvia
author_facet Margraf, Jürgen
Brailovskaia, Julia
Schneider, Silvia
author_sort Margraf, Jürgen
collection PubMed
description In the absence of vaccines or causal therapies, behavioral measures such as wearing face masks and maintaining social distance are central to fighting Covid-19. Yet, their benefits are often questioned by the population and the level of adherence to the measures is variable. We examined in representative samples across eight countries (N = 7,568) whether adherence reported around June 1, 2020 predicted the increase in Covid-19 mortality by August 31, 2020. Mortality increased 81.3% in low adherence countries (United States, Sweden, Poland, Russia), 8.4% in high adherence countries (Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom). Across countries adherence and subsequent mortality increases correlated with r = -0.91. No African or South American countries were included in the present study, which limits the generalizability of the findings. While reported Covid-19 mortality is likely to be influenced by other factors, the almost tenfold difference in additional mortality is significant, and may inform decisions when choosing whether to prioritize individual liberty rights or health-protective measures.
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spelling pubmed-80093582021-04-07 Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality Margraf, Jürgen Brailovskaia, Julia Schneider, Silvia PLoS One Research Article In the absence of vaccines or causal therapies, behavioral measures such as wearing face masks and maintaining social distance are central to fighting Covid-19. Yet, their benefits are often questioned by the population and the level of adherence to the measures is variable. We examined in representative samples across eight countries (N = 7,568) whether adherence reported around June 1, 2020 predicted the increase in Covid-19 mortality by August 31, 2020. Mortality increased 81.3% in low adherence countries (United States, Sweden, Poland, Russia), 8.4% in high adherence countries (Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom). Across countries adherence and subsequent mortality increases correlated with r = -0.91. No African or South American countries were included in the present study, which limits the generalizability of the findings. While reported Covid-19 mortality is likely to be influenced by other factors, the almost tenfold difference in additional mortality is significant, and may inform decisions when choosing whether to prioritize individual liberty rights or health-protective measures. Public Library of Science 2021-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8009358/ /pubmed/33784361 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249392 Text en © 2021 Margraf 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
Margraf, Jürgen
Brailovskaia, Julia
Schneider, Silvia
Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
title Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
title_full Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
title_fullStr Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
title_full_unstemmed Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
title_short Adherence to behavioral Covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
title_sort adherence to behavioral covid-19 mitigation measures strongly predicts mortality
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8009358/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33784361
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249392
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