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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...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8009358 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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