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More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception-a preliminary study in China.

ABSTRACT: Social distancing is an effective measure to prevent epidemic infections during a pandemic outbreak, but its psychological value in COVID-19 pandemic mitigation remained less detected. Our study fills this gap by conducting a nationwide survey in China between 12 and 25 February (2020), and a follow-up survey targeting the same participants between 25 and 28 March (2020). We have discovered that perceived increased time staying at home, a subjective agency for social distancing, positively predicts not only risk perception of COVID-19 epidemic at the outbreak and eased stage, but also predicts subjective controllability of COVID-19 epidemic at the eased stage. Given that risk perception indicates potential active engagement of preventative behavior and that subjective controllability associating with self-efficacy could promote individual health behavior, this study preliminarily justifies the value of social distancing from the angle of perceptual factors, adding to existing mounting evidence of its effect on physically controlling pandemic spread.

SUBMITTER: Gong Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8593396 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception-a preliminary study in China.

Gong Yuanchao Y Zhang Linxiu L Sun Yan Y

Humanities & social sciences communications 20210415 1

Social distancing is an effective measure to prevent epidemic infections during a pandemic outbreak, but its psychological value in COVID-19 pandemic mitigation remained less detected. Our study fills this gap by conducting a nationwide survey in China between 12 and 25 February (2020), and a follow-up survey targeting the same participants between 25 and 28 March (2020). We have discovered that perceived increased time staying at home, a subjective agency for social distancing, positively predi ...[more]

PMID: 34806030

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Project description:BackgroundSocial distancing policies were of utmost importance during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. These policies aimed to mitigate the severity of local outbreaks by altering public behavior. However, if the severity of the pandemic reduces, the impact of these policies on actual behavior may decrease. This study aims to examine, from a global perspective, whether the impact of social distancing policies on actual mobility is moderated by local pandemic severity and whether this moderating effect varies across cultural value contexts.MethodsWe combined multiple publicly available global datasets for structural equation model analysis. 17,513 rows of data from 57 countries included in all databases were analyzed. Multilevel moderated moderation models were constructed to test the hypotheses.ResultsMore stringent policies in a region mean less regional mobility (β = -0.572, p < 0.001). However, the severity of local outbreaks negatively moderated this effect (β = -0.114, p < 0.001). When the pandemic was not severe, the influence of policy intensity on mobility weakened. Furthermore, based on Schwartz's cultural values theory, cultural values of autonomy (β = -0.109, p = 0.011), and egalitarianism (β = -0.108, p = 0.019) reinforced the moderating effect of pandemic severity. On the other hand, cultural values of embeddedness (β = 0.119, p = 0.006) and hierarchy (β = 0.096, p = 0.029) attenuated the moderating effect.ConclusionsSocial distancing policies aim to reduce the severity of local pandemics; however, the findings reveal that mitigating local pandemics may reduce their impact. Future policymakers should be alert to this phenomenon and introduce appropriate incentives to respond. The results also show that the moderating role of pandemic severity varies across cultures. When policies are promoted to deal with global crises, policymakers must seriously consider the resistance and potential incentives of cultural values.

Project description:IntroductionThe efficiency of The International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) in reflecting patients' disability has recently been questioned. This prompts consideration that clinical features beyond pain may more accurately indicate the extent of underlying brain impairment than the mere frequency of headache days. Important cognitive dysfunctions and psychological impairment have been reported in burdensome cases of migraine, and the presence of these alterations has been associated with biological changes in the nervous system. This study aimed to compare migraine-related disability within a specific patient group, classified using ICHD-3 criteria or classified based on findings from a neuropsychological evaluation using machine learning. Additionally, a complementary voxel-based morphometry (VBM) comparison was conducted to explore potential neuroanatomical differences between the resulting groups.Patients and methodsThe study included episodic and chronic migraine patients seeking consultation at a specialized headache department. A neuropsychological evaluation protocol, encompassing validated standardized tests for cognition, anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and headache-related impact (HIT-6) and disability (MIDAS), was administered. Results from this evaluation were input into an automated K-means clustering algorithm, with a predefined K=2 for comparative purposes. A supplementary Voxel-based Morphometry (VBM) evaluation was conducted to investigate neuroanatomical contrasts between the two distinct grouping configurations.ResultsThe study involved 111 participants, with 49 having chronic migraine and 62 having episodic migraine. Seventy-four patients were assigned to cluster one, and 37 patients were assigned to cluster two. Cluster two exhibited significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress, and performed worse in alternating and focalized attention tests. Differences in HIT-6 and MIDAS scores between episodic and chronic migraine patients did not reach statistical significance (HIT-6: 64.39 (±7,31) vs 62.92 (±11,61); p= 0. 42 / MIDAS: 73.63 (±68,61) vs 84.33 (±63,62); p=0.40). In contrast, patients in cluster two exhibited significantly higher HIT-6 (62.32 (±10,11) vs 66.57 (±7,21); p=0.03) and MIDAS (68.69 (±62,58) vs 97.68 (±70,31); p=0.03) scores than patients in cluster one. Furthermore, significant differences in grey matter volume between the two clusters were noted, particularly involving the precuneus, while differences between chronic and episodic migraine patients did not withstand correction for multiple comparisons.ConclusionsThe classification of migraine patients based on neuropsychological characteristics demonstrates a more effective separation of groups in terms of disability compared to categorizing them based on the chronic or episodic diagnosis of ICHD-3. These findings could reveal biological changes that might explain differences in treatment responses among apparently similar patients.

Dataset Information

More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception-a preliminary study in China.

Publications

More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception-a preliminary study in China.

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