The pandemic Covid19 spread mainly in 2020 – 2022. An international team of scholars conducted a study focused on lifestyle and mental well-being in the time of the pandemic Covid-19 that hit the world in 2020, and it lasted until the end of 2021.
The study was a part of the major project
Pandemic Emergency in Social Perspective
This research gathered data in seven European countries and finally operated with about 10 000 cases. The findings were published in two peer-reviewed articles, and other outputs are still coming.
PROJECT TEAM
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
Italy: Linda Lombi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan) and Marco Terraneo
(Università Bicocca-Milano)
OTHER INVESTIGATORS:
Czech Republic: Sarka Tesarova (team leader), Ondřej Pekáček, Hynek Jerabek, Jiri Remr, Petr Soukup,
Dino Numerato (Charles University, Prague)
France: Alessandro Porrovecchio (team leader, Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale),
Thierry Pezé (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale), Philippe Masson , Clement Llena
(Université de Lille), Michael Racodon (Clinique de la Mitterie, Lille)
Germany: Federico Quadrelli
Poland: Damian Guzek (team leader), Dagmara Głuszek-Szafraniec, Róża Norström,
(University of Silesia in Katowice)
Spain: Pedro R. Olivares (team leader), Jesus Saez-Padilla (University of Huelva),
Miguel A. Perez-Sousa (University of Huelva).
Sweden: Hannah Bradby (team leader), Magdalena Kania Lundholm (Uppsala
University)
United Kingdom: Nicola Gale, University of Birmingham
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND RATIONALE
Introduction
The spread of the Covid-19 virus has dominated national as well as international policy
and governance across the world in the early months of 2020 and looks likely to continue
to be a major political, economic and social influence in the future. Responses to the
spread of the virus have varied by locality and by country, with the pandemic
simultaneously demonstrating the globalized flow of people and goods and the centrality
of the nation state in a public health emergency. In the face of a novel virus, there are no
ready-made public health measures to prevent the spread of the virus and responses to
Covid-19 are building on experiences with previous viral and bacterial infections. With
the adoption of different means of social distancing, protecting vulnerable groups and
lock-down in different places, the importance of primary data gathering as the pandemic
progresses is paramount. While infection and mortality rates are needed to inform
epidemiological modelling, there is also an urgent need to measure the effects of public
health initiatives on people’s experience of everyday life. Lock-down measures are
designed to slow the spread of infection and their effectiveness in doing this with Covid-
19 is being studied closely. It is crucial to ascertain the social costs that are involved in
public health measures too, so that an assessment of their effectiveness includes the
harm that may be done by confining people to their homes in terms of their mental and
physical wellbeing. Public policy to prevent infection is being communicated by
governments across Europe, but how that information is being received also needs to be
studied, in order both to understand how current policy is working in practice and so to
inform future policy. The influence of a person’s family situation and employment status
on their ability to cope with the measures taken against the pandemic is part of informing
how measures should be developed so as to serve the whole of society. Since the public
health emergency has fundamentally changed social, economic and political
expectations in society, it is urgent that we get a sense of how widespread and serious
people’s anxiety and uncertainty are about their own and their families’ lives. Dimensions
of our social world need to be part of the wider conversation about how the pandemic is
handled in individual member states and across Europe, to inform where our shared
resources are directed in times of trouble.
Relevant Literature and Data
Scholars have noted that pandemics have a significant effect on wellbeing and
psychosocial health. A substantial amount of research has been conducted in relation to
the severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS pandemic.
According to Nickell et al. (2004), the SARS pandemic caused high levels of
psychological distress and concern for personal and family health. Four factors were
identified as being significantly associated with the presence of emotional distress: being
2a nurse, part-time employment status, lifestyle affected by SARS outbreak and whether
the ability to do one’s job was affected by the precautionary measures.
Research on the impact of the SARS outbreak in 2005 in Hong Kong, showed that 27%-
38% of the respondents felt an increased level of stress at home, at work or in financial
matters during the SARS period, as compared to the pre-SARS phase (Lau et al. 2005).
Between 62% and 73% of respondents felt horrified, apprehensive or helpless due to
SARS, with the risk of compromised mental wellbeing higher among older people (Lau
et al. 2006). Negative feelings were associated with being female, older and less
educated (Lau et al. 2005, 2006) and these findings concur with the effects of SARS in
other settings (Brug et al. 2004).
A cross cultural comparison suggested that crucial aspects of preparedness planning for
epidemics and pandemics include local knowledge regarding risk perception, information
sources, and whether they are trusted as well as the sorts of concerns that are most
prevalent (Vaarti et al. 2009).
Previous epidemic crises had serious public health consequences, not only linked to the
viral infection per se, but also the impact on communities’ health, but which have rarely
been assessed. There seem to be both positive and negative health consequences of
public health measures to contain the spread of infection. On the one side, as mentioned
before, previous studies of the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong suggested that people
practiced more favourable health behaviours (Lau et al. 2005). On the other side,
restrictions associated with a health crisis have potential to further impact and accelerate
physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour (Hall et al. 2020).
Strong evidence associates physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour with an
increased risk of chronic disease, which are the leading causes of death worldwide (Lee
et al. 2012). Over the last 20 years, the accumulation of scientific evidence shows that
people need to lead an active physical life to develop and protect one’s overall health at
all ages (Ekelund et al. 2019). According to the WHO, today, physical inactivity and a
sedentary lifestyle are the fourth leading causes of death worldwide and remain a major
public health problem.
Furthermore, sedentary lifestyles lead to physiological disorders, which in turn generate
significant costs in terms of health expenditure (Ding et al. 2016). Physical activity’s
promotion to improve populations’ health has been a core objective of health strategies
and policies globally for decades (Palfrey, 2018). The mandated restrictions on outdoor
activities associated with the coronavirus crisis of 2020, including regular physical activity
and exercise, disrupted the routines of millions of people and generated a contradictory
situation. On the one hand, physical activity became a potentially risky behaviour, since
it could bring one into contact with the infection and further the pandemic. On the other
hand, while taking precautions, regular physical activity is an important tool to maintain
the population’s health despite the lockdown (Chen et al., 2020).
However, scholars engaged in public health analysis of the present pandemic situation
stress the fact that both modifiable lifestyle factors like diet and physical activity (Carter
3et al., 2020) and mental health’s issues (Zhang et al., 2020) should not be marginalized
by policy makers’ considerations.
STUDY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Primary Objectives
The primary objective of our study is to explore the social and psychological impact of
the pandemic COVID-19 during the lockdown and social distancing period.
Secondary Objectives
The secondary objectives are to:
1. describe the mental health condition of respondents during the pandemic;
2. identify socio-demographic risk factors associated with a range of coping strategies;
3. describe the changes of habits and lifestyle (diet, alcohol consumption, tobacco
consumption, physical activities) during the pandemic;
4. explore participants’ perceptions of risk of COVID-19 infection (for themselves and
their relatives and friends);
5. identify media sources from which we obtain our knowledge and that shape our
opinions on the topic of the coronavirus outbreak, authorities’ restrictions as well as
preventive measures against the infection;
6. point out in which conditions the behaviour of the respondents and their perception
of the sense of knowledge about COVID-19 is associated with media consumption;
7. explore interpersonal communication with relatives, friends, and colleagues during
the lockdown.
8. explore the differences in risk perception, fear, and expectations between
different social and demographic groups and test comparative hypotheses on
intra-state differences in an international comparative perspective.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Tools and Measurements
We will conduct an exploratory study through the administration of an online survey.
A total of 31 questions will cover the following areas:
4● Demographic information: gender, age, marital status, employment status,
family, number and age of children living at home, living conditions, residential
area;
● COVID-19 experience: safety and precautionary measures adopted to reduce the
risk of contagion, social relationship during the quarantine, health emergency
duration expectations, post-COVID scenario prevision, personal testing and
outcome for COVID-19, loss of relatives or friends due to COVID-19;
● COVID-19 and media source information: level of information perceived,
information sources and channels;
● COVID-19 risk perception: fear of getting sick, general and personal concern
regarding the virus;
● Lifestyle behaviours: diet, alcohol, and tobacco consumption during the
pandemic, physical activity;
● Perceived Stress: the 8-item version of Personal Health Questionnaire
Depression Scale (PHE-8)
● Health condition: chronic health conditions, general health status, daily activity
abilities.
Data collection and sampling
In this study, we will utilise a convenience sample recruited by Facebook national groups.
We will share the link to our web survey in Facebook groups which are dedicated to the
COVID-19 pandemic. We will adopt a snowballing technique in order to collect as many
questionnaires as possible. Our goal will be to recruit a sample of citizens in each country
(at least 1,000 for each country).
The Internet provides opportunities for non-random survey data (Couper, 2000;
Tourangeau, 2004), and even if this data cannot be considered representative of the
whole population it offers other opportunities. As Baltar and Brunet pointed out (2012),
the administration of an online survey through Facebook allows us to reach a higher
response rate than traditional snowball techniques, due to the fact that people’s levels of
confidence are enhanced by the researcher sharing their personal information
(Facebook’s profile) and participating in groups of interest (Facebook’s groups).
According to Brickman-Bhutta (2012), the administration of a web survey though online
social networks offers new ways for researchers to run surveys quickly, cheaply, and
with less assistance than ever before: for these reasons, “Facebook may be a useful tool
for exploratory work and for rapid pretesting of surveys destined for dissemination via
traditional method” (Ibidem, p. 59).
Data management and statistical analysis
The primary and demographic variables will be examined with summary statistics,
including means, medians, standard deviations (SD), minimum, and maximum values
for continuous variables, and frequencies and proportions for categorical variables.
56
One way in which the international data from our survey could be used would be to
conduct comparative research. Everybody knows of comparisons between states or
nations, but we would like to conduct comparative analyses in which the comparisons
are between demographically or socially similar groups in our countries in an
international perspective.
It is highly likely that the composition of our national samples will not be representative
of the national population but some segments of our national samples are quite
representative of particular social groups. For example, elderly people who are interested
in the COVID 19 survey in participating states can easily represent the population of
elderly people in this country as well as in other public opinion polls prepared using a
careful sampling design. Well-educated young people in our nations who show an
interest in public issues are well represented by the groups of young people in each
country who participated in our COVID 19 European Web Survey.
This relatively simple approach allows us to test generally comparative hypotheses
concerning intra-state differences in an international European comparative perspective.
As an example, we can expect significant differences between people with high social
status and low social status in terms of acting responsibility during the time of restrictive
anti-COVID measures as a general European real-life situation. We can try to determine
whether that difference between these social groups can be observed repeatedly in
different countries.
DATA SAFETY
All data collected for this research study will be obtained nameless from not identifiable
human subjects for research purposes only. In other words, all questions are
anonymized to preserve privacy and no personal information is collected.
All data and records generated during this study will be kept confidential in accordance
with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) – The official PDF of the
Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE STUDY
The goal of this research is to gain some insight into the social impact of COVID-19 with
an emphasis on groups that are more vulnerable (for socio-demographic, professional
and living conditions aspects) in their ability to cope with the pandemic and its on social
and health consequences.
DISSEMINATION
The dissemination and communication strategy will be elaborated at the beginning of the
project in collaboration with the other partners.
We will submit several manuscripts based on the study data to peer review journals in
sociology, social science, public health, psychology, and community medicine.
We will ensure that our findings will be available to the scientific community and
stakeholders in an open access format (report and scientific articles) to facilitate the
exchange of knowledge, as well as the cooperation with other researchers and in general
with civil society. Moreover, abstracts of the scientific findings will be periodically shared
on the “Researchgate platform” connected to our project.
GENDER ISSUES
We also paid attention to gender equality in terms of human resources, assuring balance
and equal opportunities between women and men in the research teams. We also will
ensure gender balance in decision-making, in order to reach the target of 50% of the
underrepresented sex in the core research team.
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