Cargando…
Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector
BACKGROUND: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 triggered a chain of public health responses that radically changed our way of living and working. Non-healthcare sectors, such as the logistics sector, play a key role in such responses. This research aims to qualitatively evaluate the non-pharmaceutical inte...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9198245/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35719658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.864506 |
_version_ | 1784727568382951424 |
---|---|
author | Wei, Hua Daniels, Sarah Whitfield, Carl A. Han, Yang Denning, David W. Hall, Ian Regan, Martyn Verma, Arpana van Tongeren, Martie |
author_facet | Wei, Hua Daniels, Sarah Whitfield, Carl A. Han, Yang Denning, David W. Hall, Ian Regan, Martyn Verma, Arpana van Tongeren, Martie |
author_sort | Wei, Hua |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 triggered a chain of public health responses that radically changed our way of living and working. Non-healthcare sectors, such as the logistics sector, play a key role in such responses. This research aims to qualitatively evaluate the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented in the UK logistics sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted nine semi-structured interviews in July-August 2020 and May-June 2021. In total 11 interviewees represented six companies occupying a range of positions in the UK's logistics sector, including takeaway food delivery, large and small goods delivery and home appliance installation, and logistics technology providers. Thematic analysis was completed using NVivo12. Codes relevant to NPIs were grouped into themes and mapped deductively onto an adapted Hierarchy of Control (HoC) framework, focusing on delivery workers. Codes relevant to the implementation process of NPIs were grouped into themes/subthemes to identify key characteristics of rapid responses, and barriers and facilitators. RESULTS: HoC analysis suggests the sector has implemented a wide range of risk mitigation measures, with each company developing their own portfolio of measures. Contact-free delivery was the most commonly implemented measure and perceived effective. The other implemented measures included social distancing, internal contact tracing, communication and collaboration with other key stakeholders of the sector. Process evaluation identified facilitators of rapid responses including capacity to develop interventions internally, localized government support, strong external mandates, effective communication, leadership support and financial support for self-isolation, while barriers included unclear government guidance, shortage of testing capacity and supply, high costs and diversified language and cultural backgrounds. Main sustainability issues included compliance fatigue, and the possible mental health impacts of a prolonged rapid response. CONCLUSIONS: This research identified drivers and obstacles of rapid implementation of NPIs in response to a respiratory infection pandemic. Existing implementation process models do not consider speed to respond and the absence or lack of guidance in emergency situations such as the COVID-19. We recommend the development of a rapid response model to inform the design of effective and sustainable infection prevention and control policies and to focus future research priorities. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9198245 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-91982452022-06-16 Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector Wei, Hua Daniels, Sarah Whitfield, Carl A. Han, Yang Denning, David W. Hall, Ian Regan, Martyn Verma, Arpana van Tongeren, Martie Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 triggered a chain of public health responses that radically changed our way of living and working. Non-healthcare sectors, such as the logistics sector, play a key role in such responses. This research aims to qualitatively evaluate the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented in the UK logistics sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted nine semi-structured interviews in July-August 2020 and May-June 2021. In total 11 interviewees represented six companies occupying a range of positions in the UK's logistics sector, including takeaway food delivery, large and small goods delivery and home appliance installation, and logistics technology providers. Thematic analysis was completed using NVivo12. Codes relevant to NPIs were grouped into themes and mapped deductively onto an adapted Hierarchy of Control (HoC) framework, focusing on delivery workers. Codes relevant to the implementation process of NPIs were grouped into themes/subthemes to identify key characteristics of rapid responses, and barriers and facilitators. RESULTS: HoC analysis suggests the sector has implemented a wide range of risk mitigation measures, with each company developing their own portfolio of measures. Contact-free delivery was the most commonly implemented measure and perceived effective. The other implemented measures included social distancing, internal contact tracing, communication and collaboration with other key stakeholders of the sector. Process evaluation identified facilitators of rapid responses including capacity to develop interventions internally, localized government support, strong external mandates, effective communication, leadership support and financial support for self-isolation, while barriers included unclear government guidance, shortage of testing capacity and supply, high costs and diversified language and cultural backgrounds. Main sustainability issues included compliance fatigue, and the possible mental health impacts of a prolonged rapid response. CONCLUSIONS: This research identified drivers and obstacles of rapid implementation of NPIs in response to a respiratory infection pandemic. Existing implementation process models do not consider speed to respond and the absence or lack of guidance in emergency situations such as the COVID-19. We recommend the development of a rapid response model to inform the design of effective and sustainable infection prevention and control policies and to focus future research priorities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9198245/ /pubmed/35719658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.864506 Text en Copyright © 2022 Wei, Daniels, Whitfield, Han, Denning, Hall, Regan, Verma and van Tongeren. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Wei, Hua Daniels, Sarah Whitfield, Carl A. Han, Yang Denning, David W. Hall, Ian Regan, Martyn Verma, Arpana van Tongeren, Martie Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector |
title | Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector |
title_full | Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector |
title_fullStr | Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector |
title_full_unstemmed | Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector |
title_short | Agility and Sustainability: A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical Interventions in the UK Logistics Sector |
title_sort | agility and sustainability: a qualitative evaluation of covid-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions in the uk logistics sector |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9198245/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35719658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.864506 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT weihua agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT danielssarah agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT whitfieldcarla agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT hanyang agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT denningdavidw agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT hallian agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT reganmartyn agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT vermaarpana agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector AT vantongerenmartie agilityandsustainabilityaqualitativeevaluationofcovid19nonpharmaceuticalinterventionsintheuklogisticssector |