Resilience of countries to COVID-19 correlated with trust.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Lenton TM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8738739 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Declines in health service use during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could have important effects on population health. In this study, we used an interrupted time series design to assess the immediate effect of the pandemic on 31 health services in two low-income (Ethiopia and Haiti), six middle-income (Ghana, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Thailand) and high-income (Chile and South Korea) countries. Despite efforts to maintain health services, disruptions of varying magnitude and duration were found in every country, with no clear patterns by country income group or pandemic intensity. Disruptions in health services often preceded COVID-19 waves. Cancer screenings, TB screening and detection and HIV testing were most affected (26-96% declines). Total outpatient visits declined by 9-40% at national levels and remained lower than predicted by the end of 2020. Maternal health services were disrupted in approximately half of the countries, with declines ranging from 5% to 33%. Child vaccinations were disrupted for shorter periods, but we estimate that catch-up campaigns might not have reached all children missed. By contrast, provision of antiretrovirals for HIV was not affected. By the end of 2020, substantial disruptions remained in half of the countries. Preliminary data for 2021 indicate that disruptions likely persisted. Although a portion of the declines observed might result from decreased needs during lockdowns (from fewer infectious illnesses or injuries), a larger share likely reflects a shortfall of health system resilience. Countries must plan to compensate for missed healthcare during the current pandemic and invest in strategies for better health system resilience for future emergencies.
| S-EPMC9205770 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has dramatically changed societies in 2020. Since the end of February, Europe has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, but there are major country differences in both the spread of the virus and measures taken to stop the virus. Social psychological factors such as institutional trust could be important in understanding the development of the epidemic. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to examine country variations of COVID-19 mortality in Europe by analyzing social risk factors explaining the spread of the disease, restrictions and control measures, and institutional trust. METHODS:The present study was based on a background analysis of European Social Survey data on 25 European countries (N=47,802). Multilevel mixed effects linear regression models focused on 84 days of the COVID-19 epidemic (January 22 to April 14, 2020) and modelled the daily COVID-19 mortality. Analysis focused on the impact of social relations, restrictions, and institutional trust within each country. RESULTS:The spread of the COVID-19 epidemic has been fast everywhere, but the findings revealed significant differences between countries in COVID-19 mortality. Perceived sociability predicted higher COVID-19 mortality. Major differences between the 25 countries were found in reaction times to the crisis. Late reaction to the crisis predicted later mortality figures. Institutional trust was associated with lower COVID-19 mortality. CONCLUSIONS:The analyses demonstrated the importance of societal and social psychological factors in the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. By considering multiple perspectives, this study showed that country differences in Europe are major, and this will have an impact on how countries will cope with the ongoing crisis in the following months. The results indicated the importance of timely restrictions and cooperation with people.
| S-EPMC7184967 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The magnitude and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prevents public health policies from relying on coercive enforcement. Practicing social distancing, wearing masks and staying at home becomes voluntary and conditional on the behavior of others. We present the results of a large-scale survey experiment in nine countries with representative samples of the population. We find that both empirical expectations (what others do) and normative expectations (what others approve of) play a significant role in compliance, beyond the effect of any other individual or group characteristic. In our vignette experiment, respondents evaluate the likelihood of compliance with social distancing and staying at home of someone similar to them in a hypothetical scenario. When empirical and normative expectations of individuals are high, respondents' evaluation of the vignette's character's compliance likelihood goes up by 55% (relative to the low expectations condition). Similar results are obtained when looking at self-reported compliance among those with high expectations. Our results are moderated by individuals' trust in government and trust in science. Holding expectations high, the effect of trusting science is substantial and significant in our vignette experiment (22% increase in compliance likelihood), and even larger in self-reported compliance (76% and 127% increase before and after the lockdown). By contrast, trusting the government only generates modest effects. At the aggregate level, the country-level trust in science, and not in government, becomes a strong predictor of compliance.
| S-EPMC8177647 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study examines how trust was associated with social distancing during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Burkina Faso and Kenya. It fills gaps in previous research on trust and health by 1) simultaneously considering the relationship of individual- and aggregate-level indicators of trust, and 2) evaluating trust in local government and national government separately. Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) data on COVID-precautionary measures and individual-level trust measures were spatially linked with aggregated trust data from the Afrobarometer to create a multilevel dataset. PMA data show that women in Kenya were generally more likely to report taking COVID-precautionary measures relative to Burkinabé women, although levels of these measures were high in both countries. Hierarchical logistic models for each country show levels of interpersonal trust mattered more in Burkina Faso. Although the association between individual-level trust in government and social distancing was not statistically significant, overall levels of trust in the region where an individual lived were associated with social distancing. We found a significant interaction effect between regional trust in the national government and regional trust in local government: individuals in regions where trust was high in both national and local government were the most likely to socially distance; individuals in regions with low local government trust but high national government trust were less likely to report social distancing. We unpack possible implications of these findings; they point to the importance of a unified government front within African countries in promoting health safety measures during a pandemic.
| S-EPMC10077808 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionIn 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic swept the world, and many national health systems faced serious challenges. To improve future public health responses, it's necessary to evaluate the performance of each country's health system.MethodsWe developed a resilience evaluation system for national health systems based on their responses to COVID-19 using four resilience dimensions: government governance and prevention, health financing, health service provision, and health workers. We determined the weight of each index by combining the three-scale and entropy-weight methods. Then, based on data from 2020, we used the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to rank the health system resilience of 60 countries, and then used hierarchical clustering to classify countries into groups based on their resilience level. Finally, we analyzed the causes of differences among countries in their resilience based on the four resilience dimensions.ResultsSwitzerland, Japan, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Finland, the United States, and the United Kingdom had the highest health system resilience in 2020. Eritrea, Nigeria, Libya, Tanzania, Burundi, Mozambique, Republic of the Niger, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Guinea had the lowest resilience.DiscussionGovernment governance and prevention of COVID-19 will greatly affect a country's success in fighting future epidemics, which will depend on a government's emergency preparedness, stringency (a measure of the number and rigor of the measures taken), and testing capability. Given the lack of vaccines or specific drug treatments during the early stages of the 2020 epidemic, social distancing and wearing masks were the main defenses against COVID-19. Cuts in health financing had direct and difficult to reverse effects on health systems. In terms of health service provision, the number of hospitals and intensive care unit beds played a key role in COVID-19 clinical care. Resilient health systems were able to cope more effectively with the impact of COVID-19, provide stronger protection for citizens, and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. Our evaluation based on data from 60 countries around the world showed that increasing health system resilience will improve responses to future public health emergencies.
| S-EPMC9870292 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Addressing risks and pandemics at a country level is a complex task that requires transdisciplinary approaches. The paper aims to identify groups of the European Union countries characterized by a similar COVID-19 Resilience Index (CRI). Developed in the paper CRI index reflects the countries' COVID-19 risk and their readiness for a crisis situation, including a pandemic. Moreover, the study detects the factors that significantly differentiate the distinguished groups. According to our research, Bulgaria, Hungary, Malta, and Poland have the lowest COVID-19 Resilience Index score, with Croatia, Greece, Czechia, and Slovakia following close. At the same time, Ireland and Scandinavian countries occupy the top of the leader board, followed by Luxemburg. The Kruskal-Wallis test results indicate four COVID-19 risk indicators that significantly differentiate the countries in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the significant factors are not only COVID-19-related factors, i.e., the changes in residential human mobility, the stringency of anti-COVID-19 policy, but also strictly environmental factors, namely pollution and material footprint. It indicates that the most critical global environmental issues might be crucial in the phase of a future pandemic. Moreover, we detect eight readiness factors that significantly differentiate the analysed country groups. Among the significant factors are the economic indicators such as GDP per capita and labour markets, the governance indicators such as Rule of Law, Access to Information, Implementation and Adaptability measures, and social indicators such as Tertiary Attainment and Research, Innovation, and Infrastructure.
| S-EPMC10403121 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has affected all countries with more than 100 million confirmed cases and over 2.1 million casualties by the end of January 2021 worldwide. A prolonged pandemic can harm global levels of optimism, regularity, and sense of meaning and belonging, yielding adverse effects on individuals' mental health as represented by worry, paranoia, and distress. Here we studied resilience, a successful adaptation despite risk and adversity, in five countries: Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Israel, and Norway. In April 2020, over 2,500 participants were recruited for an observational study measuring protective and obstructive factors for distress and paranoia. More than 800 of these participants also completed a follow-up study in July. We found that thriving, keeping a regular schedule, engaging in physical exercise and less procrastination served as factors protecting against distress and paranoia. Risk factors were financial worries and a negative mindset, e.g., feeling a lack of control. Longitudinally, we found no increase in distress or paranoia despite an increase in expectation of how long the outbreak and the restrictions will last, suggesting respondents engaged in healthy coping and adapting their lives to the new circumstances. Altogether, our data suggest that humans adapt even to prolonged stressful events. Our data further highlight several protective factors that policymakers should leverage when considering stress-reducing policies.
| S-EPMC8222673 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This article uses novel data collected on a weekly basis covering more than 35,000 individuals in the EU to analyze the relationship between trust in various dimensions and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We found that trust in science is negatively correlated, while trust in social media and the use of social media as the main source of information are positively associated with vaccine hesitancy. High trust in social media is found among adults aged 65+, financially distressed and unemployed individuals, and hesitancy is largely explained by conspiracy beliefs among them. Finally, we found that the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March 2021 significantly increased vaccine hesitancy and especially among people with low trust in science, living in rural areas, females, and financially distressed. Our findings suggest that trust is a key determinant of vaccine hesitancy and that pro-vaccine campaigns could be successfully targeted toward groups at high risk of hesitancy.
| S-EPMC10245358 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 virus disseminated globally at an accelerated pace, culminating in a worldwide pandemic; it engendered a proliferation of spurious information and a plethora of misinformation and conspiracy theories (CTs). While many factors contributing to the propensity for embracing conspiracy ideation have been delineated, the foremost determinant influencing individuals' proclivity towards CT endorsement appears to be their level of educational attainment. This research aimed to assess the moderating effect of religiosity, trust in scientists, and political orientation on the impact of education level on people's belief in COVID-19-related CTs in Europe by considering both individual-level and country-level contextual covariates of CT. We analysed data from the newest European Social Survey (ESS10) round conducted between September 2020 and September 2022 in 26 countries. We found religiosity weakens, and trust in scientists strengthens the effect of education, while the impact of political orientation is not straightforward. The result also demonstrates a significant negative correlation between the aggregate country-level data of the respondents supporting CTs and the level of vaccination and cumulative excess deaths in Europe. We concluded with a recommendation that planning effective public health strategies and campaigns are insufficient when based solely on people's education, as individuals' beliefs moderate the effect of education.
| S-EPMC10593806 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has resulted in an enormous threat to public health, causing global panic, especially older adults suffering severe anxiety due to their vulnerability. With a questionnaire survey on 213 Chinese older adults in April 2020, we examined the role of community resilience in protecting older adults from anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and simultaneously considered the moderating role of trust in local government. The results indicated that community resilience was negatively associated with older adults' anxiety, and this association was weakened for older adults with low trust in local government. This study has implications for intervention designs that combine resilient factors related to communities and local governments to relieve older adults' anxiety during the pandemic. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.
| S-EPMC8426948 | biostudies-literature