Journal
ANNALS OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE
Volume 56, Issue 8, Pages 781-790Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/abm/kaac023
Keywords
COVID-19; Nonpharmaceutical interventions; Compliance; Latent class growth analysis; Growth curve modeling
Categories
Funding
- Nuffield Foundation [WEL/FR-000022583]
- MARCH Mental Health Network - Cross-Disciplinary Mental Health Network Plus initiative - UK Research and Innovation [ES/S002588/1]
- Wellcome Trust [221400/Z/20/Z, 205407/Z/16/Z]
- HealthWise Wales
- Health and Car Research Wales initiative
- SAIL, Swansea University
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This study aims to explore trajectories of compliance with COVID-19 guidelines. The results show that while most individuals maintained high levels of compliance, there is a minority who experienced decreasing compliance, which is related to their psychological traits.
Background Governments have implemented a range of measures focused on changing citizens' behaviors to lower the transmission of COVID-19. While international data shows that compliance did decline from the start of the pandemic, average trends could mask considerable heterogeneity in compliance behaviors. Purpose To explore trajectories of compliance with COVID-19 guidelines. Methods We used longitudinal data on self-reported compliance from 50,851 adults in the COVID-19 Social Study collected across two waves of the pandemic in the UK (April 01, 2020-February 22, 2021). We modeled typical compliance trajectories using latent class growth analysis (LCGA) and used multinomial logistic regression to examine whether individual personality and demographic characteristics were related to compliance trajectories. Results We selected a four-class LCGA solution. Most individuals maintained high levels of compliance and reported similar levels of compliance across the first and second waves. Approximately 15% of participants had decreasing levels of compliance across the pandemic, reporting noticeably lower levels of compliance in the second wave. Individuals with declining compliance levels were younger on average, in better physical health, had lower empathy and conscientiousness and greater general willingness to take risks. Conclusions While a minority, not all individuals have maintained high compliance across the pandemic. Decreasing compliance is related to several psychological traits. The results suggest that targeting of behavior change messages later in the pandemic may be needed to increase compliance.
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