Dataset Information

Impact of biological sex and gender-related factors on public engagement in protective health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional analyses from a global survey.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Given the role of sociocultural gender in shaping human behaviours, the main objective of this study was to examine whether sex and gender-related factors were associated with the public's adherence to COVID-19-recommended protective health behaviours.

Design

This was a retrospective analysis of the survey that captured data on people's awareness, attitudes and behaviours as they relate to the COVID-19 policies.

Setting

Data from the International COVID-19 Awareness and Responses Evaluation survey collected between March 2020 and February 2021 from 175 countries.

Participants

Convenience sample around the world.

Main outcome measures

We examined the role of sex and gender-related factors in relation to non-adherence of protective health behaviours including: (1) hand washing; (2) mask wearing; and (3) physical distancing. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to determine the factors associated with non-adherence to behaviours.

Results

Among 48 668 respondents (mean age: 43 years; 71% female), 98.3% adopted hand washing, 68.5% mask wearing and 76.9% physical distancing. Compared with males, females were more likely to adopt hand washing (OR=1.97, 95% CI: 1.71 to 2.28) and maintain physical distancing (OR=1.28, 95% CI: 1.22 to 1.34). However, in multivariable sex-stratified models, females in countries with higher Gender Inequality Indexes (GII) were less likely to report hand washing (adjusted OR (aOR)=0.47, 95% CI: 0.21 to 1.05). Females who reported being employed (aOR=0.22, 95% CI: 0.10 to 0.48) and in countries with low/medium GIIs (aOR=0.18, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.51) were less likely to report mask wearing. Females who reported being employed were less likely to report physical distancing (aOR=0.39, 95% CI: 0.32 to 0.49).

Conclusion

While females showed greater adherence to COVID-19 protective health behaviours, gender-related factors, including employment status and high country-wide gender inequality, were independently associated with non-adherence. These findings may inform public health and vaccination policies in current as well as future pandemics.

SUBMITTER: Dev R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9189548 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Impact of biological sex and gender-related factors on public engagement in protective health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional analyses from a global survey.

Dev Rubee R Raparelli Valeria V Bacon Simon L SL Lavoie Kim L KL Pilote Louise L Norris Colleen M CM

BMJ open 20220610 6

<h4>Objective</h4>Given the role of sociocultural gender in shaping human behaviours, the main objective of this study was to examine whether sex and gender-related factors were associated with the public's adherence to COVID-19-recommended protective health behaviours.<h4>Design</h4>This was a retrospective analysis of the survey that captured data on people's awareness, attitudes and behaviours as they relate to the COVID-19 policies.<h4>Setting</h4>Data from the International COVID-19 Awarene ...[more]

PMID: 35688591

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Project description:Many fields of science are still dominated by men. COVID-19 has dramatically changed the nature of work, including for scientists, such as lack of access to key resources and transition to online teaching. Further, scientists face the pandemic-related stressors common to other professions (e.g., childcare, eldercare). As many of these activities fall more heavily on women, the pandemic may have exacerbated gender disparities in science. We analyzed self-identified gender of corresponding author for 119,592 manuscripts from 151 countries submitted January 2019 to July 2021 to the Institute of Physics (IOP) portfolio of 57 academic journals, with disciplines of astronomy and astrophysics, bioscience, environmental science, materials, mathematics, physics, and interdisciplinary research. We consider differences by country, journal, and pre-pandemic versus pandemic periods. Gender was self-identified by corresponding author for 82.9% of manuscripts (N = 99,114 for subset of submissions with gender). Of these manuscripts, authors were 82.1% male, 17.8% female, and 0.08% non-binary. Most authors were male for all countries (country-specific values: range 0.0-100.0%, median 86.1%) and every journal (journal-specific values range 63.7-91.5%, median 83.7%). The contribution of female authors was slightly higher in the pandemic (18.7%) compared to pre-pandemic (16.5%). However, prior to the pandemic, the percent of submissions from women had been increasing, and this value slowed during the pandemic. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find that manuscript submissions from women decreased during the pandemic, although the rate of increased submissions evident prior to the pandemic slowed. In both pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, authorship was overwhelmingly male for all journals, countries, and fields. Further research is needed on impacts of the pandemic on other measures of scientific productivity (e.g., accepted manuscripts, teaching), scientific position (e.g., junior vs. senior scholars), as well as the underlying gender imbalance that persisted before and during the pandemic.

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Dataset Information

Impact of biological sex and gender-related factors on public engagement in protective health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional analyses from a global survey.

Objective

Design

Setting

Participants

Main outcome measures

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Impact of biological sex and gender-related factors on public engagement in protective health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional analyses from a global survey.

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