Abstract
Behavioral measures, such as the wearing of facemasks and maintaining of distance to other people, have been central in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to be important in curbing its spread. We therefore investigated their perceived usefulness, adherence and their predictors in representative online samples in eight countries (France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, U.K., U.S.). Of the 7,658 participants, 77.4% rated governmental measures (highest: Germany, lowest: France) as useful and 91.7% reported adherence to them. Adherence was lowest in Russia and Poland, where people felt particularly left alone and not well supported, and in the U.S. and Sweden, where governments showed ambivalent attitudes towards the measures. The highest adherence was reported in countries with very high mortality (U.K., Spain, France) or very positively perceived government communication (Germany). Female gender, higher age, belonging to a risk group, being affected physically and mentally, perception of governmental communication as guided by the interests of people, feeling of being well informed and the level of positive mental health positively predicted both outcomes, while being affected economically negatively predicted both outcomes. Country-specific results are considered in the light of the protection motivation theory and the theory of planned behavior together with potential ways to improve active participation of the population. Overall, we recommend the governments and authorities to stress that each individual can contribute to the control of the COVID-19 situation by adherence to the measures in the public communication. Moreover, they should emphasize the risk of unconscious infection of older individuals by younger people, as well as the importance of physical activity for the protection of mental and physical health especially during the pandemic.
Highlights
Examples of physical activities and specific exercises that do not require expensive equipment can be provided in advertising campaigns on TV, officials governmental online sites and billboards. This can be beneficial for all investigated countries, but for Russia where our present findings revealed the lowest level of positive mental health (PMH) and of adherence to the anti-COVID-19 measures
The lowest adherence was reported in Russia and Poland, where people felt left alone and not well supported, and from the U.S and Sweden, where the governments had at least an ambivalent attitude towards behavioral anti-COVID-19 measures
The highest levels of adherence were reported in countries that either had very high mortality rates (U.K., Spain, France) or where government communication was considered positive (Germany)
Summary
The rapid spread and significant mortality rate of COVID-19, among older people, prompted governments to take drastic measures. Since May of 2020, many countries began to ease or lift some measures of the lockdown by re-opening public establishments and recreation areas, again allowing larger public gatherings. Other measures such as the wearing of facemasks (on public transport, in shops and/or in all public places) and the keeping of distance from other people have been maintained or reintroduced in the light of renewed increases in infection rates [10,14,15]
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