Brunwasser Steven M, Gebretsadik Tebeb, Satish Anisha, Cole Jennifer C, Dupont William D, Joseph Christine, Bendixsen Casper G, Calatroni Agustin, Arbes Samuel J, Fulkerson Patricia C, Sanders Joshua, Bacharier Leonard B, Camargo Carlos A, Johnson Christine Cole, Furuta Glenn T, Gruchalla Rebecca S, Gupta Ruchi S, Khurana Hershey Gurjit K, Jackson Daniel J, Kattan Meyer, Liu Andrew, O'Connor George T, Rivera-Spoljaric Katherine, Phipatanakul Wanda, Rothenberg Marc E, Seibold Max A, Seroogy Christine M, Teach Stephen J, Zoratti Edward M, Togias Alkis, Hartert Tina V
Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ 08033, USA.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2525 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
Prev Med Rep. 2024 Nov 27;49:102936. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102936. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Understanding compliance with COVID-19 mitigation recommendations is critical for informing efforts to contain future infectious disease outbreaks. This study tested the hypothesis that higher levels of worry about COVID-19 illness among household caregivers would predict lower (a) levels of overall and discretionary social exposure activities and (b) rates of household SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Data were drawn from a surveillance study of households with children ( = 1913) recruited from 12 U.S. cities during the initial year of the pandemic and followed for 28 weeks (data collection: 1-May-2020 through 22-Feb-2021). Caregivers rated how much they worried about family members getting COVID-19 and subsequently reported household levels of outside-the-home social activities that could increase risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission at 14 follow-ups. Caregivers collected household nasal swabs on a fortnightly basis and peripheral blood samples at study conclusion to monitor for SARS-CoV-2 infections by polymerase chain reaction and serology. Primary analyses used generalized linear and generalized mixed-effects modelling.
Caregivers with high enrollment levels of worry about COVID-19 illness were more likely to reduce direct social contact outside the household, particularly during the U.S.'s most deadly pandemic wave. Households of caregivers with lower COVID-19 worry had higher odds of (a) reporting discretionary outside-the-home social interaction and (b) SARS-CoV-2 infection.
This was, to our knowledge, the first study showing that caregiver COVID-19 illness worry was predictive of both COVID-19 mitigation compliance and laboratory-determined household infection. Findings should inform studies weighing the adaptive value of worrying about infectious disease outbreaks against established detrimental health effects.
了解对新冠疫情缓解建议的遵守情况对于指导遏制未来传染病爆发的努力至关重要。本研究检验了以下假设：家庭照顾者对新冠疾病的担忧程度越高，将预示着（a）总体和自主社交接触活动水平越低，以及（b）家庭严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）感染率越低。
数据来自一项对有孩子家庭（n = 1913）的监测研究，这些家庭是在疫情第一年从美国12个城市招募的，并随访28周（数据收集时间：2020年5月1日至2021年2月22日）。照顾者对他们担心家庭成员感染新冠的程度进行评分，随后在14次随访中报告可能增加SARS-CoV-2传播风险的家庭外出社交活动水平。照顾者每两周收集一次家庭鼻拭子，并在研究结束时收集外周血样本，通过聚合酶链反应和血清学监测SARS-CoV-2感染情况。主要分析采用广义线性和广义混合效应模型。
对新冠疾病担忧程度高的照顾者更有可能减少家庭外的直接社交接触，尤其是在美国最致命的疫情高峰期。对新冠担忧程度较低的照顾者家庭，（a）报告自主外出社交互动和（b）SARS-CoV-2感染的几率更高。
据我们所知，这是第一项表明照顾者对新冠疾病的担忧可预测对新冠疫情缓解措施的遵守情况以及实验室确定的家庭感染情况的研究。研究结果应为权衡担心传染病爆发的适应性价值与既定的有害健康影响的研究提供参考。
