Four of 10 Americans surveyed report that they were often less than truthful about whether they had COVID-19 and/or didn’t comply with many of the disease’s preventive measures during the height of the pandemic, 根据一项新的全国性研究，部分由 大发娱乐 科学家们. The most common reasons were wanting to feel normal and exercise personal freedom.
这项研究发表在10月的《大发娱乐》上. 2022年10月10日发行 JAMA网络开放， raises concerns about how reluctance to accurately report health status and adherence to masking, 社会距离, and other public health measures could potentially lengthen the current COVID-19 pandemic or promote the spread of other infectious diseases in the future, 根据 安吉拉·法格林博士.D., senior author of the study and chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at U of U Health.
“COVID-19安全措施当然是繁重的, 但是它们是有效的,Andrea Gurmankin Levy说, Ph.D., a professor of social sciences at Middlesex Community College in Connecticut. 作为这项研究的共同主要作者, she worked in collaboration with Fagerlin and other 科学家们 at U of U Heath as well as researchers elsewhere in the United States.
“When people are dishonest about their COVID-19 status or what precautions they are taking, 这可能会增加疾病在他们社区的传播.利维说. “For some people, particularly before we had COVID 疫苗s, that can mean death.”
The researchers decided to assess how truthful Americans were being about their COVID-19 disease status and/or compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures after they noticed several media stories about people who were dishonest about their 免疫状态, 法格林说.
在调查中, 于2021年12月进行, 多于1,700 people from across the country were asked to reveal whether they had ever misrepresented their COVID-19 status, 免疫状态, or told others that they were following public health measures when they actually weren’t. The sample size is far larger and asked about a broader range of behaviors than previous studies on this topic, 根据Fagerlin的说法, who is also a research scientist at the Veteran Affairs Salt Lake City Healthcare System.
Screening questions allowed the health service researchers and psychologists who designed the study to evenly divide the participants: one-third who had had COVID-19, 三分之一没有感染COVID-19并接种了疫苗, and one-third who had not had COVID-19 and were unvaccinated.
基于九种行为, 721 respondents (42%) reported that they had misrepresented COVID-19 status or failed to follow public health recommendations. 一些最常见的事件是：
- 违反检疫规定
- 告诉别人他们在一起, 或者大发娱乐即将看到, that they were taking more COVID-19 precautions than they actually were
- 更别提他们可能有, 或者知道他们有, 在进入医生办公室时感染COVID-19
- 告诉别人他们接种了疫苗，而实际上他们没有
- 说他们没有接种疫苗，其实他们已经接种了
All age groups younger than 60 years and those who had a greater distrust of science were more likely to engage in misrepresentation and/or misrepresentation than others. About 60% of respondents said that they had sought a doctor’s advice for COVID-19 prevention or treatment.
然而, the researchers found no association between COVID-19 misrepresentation and political beliefs, 所属政党, 或宗教.
“Some individuals may think if they fib about their COVID-19 status once or twice, 没什么大不了的,法格林说. “但如果, 大发娱乐的研究表明, 几乎一半的人都在这么做, that’s a significant problem that contributes to prolonging the pandemic.”
Among the reasons respondents gave for misrepresentation were:
- 我不认为COVID-19是真的，或者没什么大不了的
- 这不关别人的事
- 我没有感到不舒服
- I was following the advice of a celebrity or other public figure
- 我不能为了待在家里而错过工作
在这项研究的局限性中, the researchers could not determine if respondents honestly answered survey questions, opening the possibility that their findings underestimated how commonly people misrepresented their health status.
“This study goes a long way toward showing us what concerns people have about the public health measures implemented in response to the pandemic and how likely they are to be honest in the face of a global crisis,” 阿利斯泰尔·索普博士.D., co-first author and a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Population Health Sciences at U of U Health. “Knowing that will help us better prepare for the next wave of worldwide illness.”
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In addition to Fagerlin and Thorpe, 大发娱乐 researchers Holly Shoemaker, Frank A. 乔里·德鲁斯. Butler和Vanessa Stevens对这项研究做出了贡献. Other participating institutions include Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut; University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora; Veterans Affairs Denver Center for Innovation; University of Iowa School of Medicine, Iowa City; Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) Center for Innovation; VA Salt Lake City Health Care System; and the American Heart Association.
这项研究, “Misrepresentation and Nonadherence Regarding COVID-19 Public Health Measures,出现在10月. 2022年10月10日发行 JAMA网络开放. 它得到了约翰. Huntsman Presidential Endowment and an American Heart Association Children’s Strategically Focused 研究 Network Fellowship.