Quantifying the Social Distancing Privilege Gap: A Longitudinal Study of Smartphone Movement

Abstract

Background: In response to the coronavirus pandemic, social distancing became a widely deployed countermeasure in March 2020. We examined whether healthier and wealthier places more successfully implemented social distancing. Methods: Mobile device location data were used to quantify declines in movement by county (n=2,633) in the United States of America, comparing April 15-17 (n=65,544,268 traces) to baseline of February 17 - March 7. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate gradients of privilege across eleven healthcare and economic indicators, adjusting for rurality and stay-at-home mandates. External validation used separate venue-specific data from Google Location Services. Findings: Counties without stay-at-home orders showed a mobility decline of -52·3% (95% CI: -50·3%, -54·3%), slightly less than the decline in mandated areas (-60·8%; 95% CI: -60·0%, -61·6%). Strong linear gradients in privilege were observed. After adjusting for rurality and stay-at-home orders, counties in the highest quintile of social distancing mobility restriction had: 52% less uninsured, 47% more primary care providers, 29% more exercise space, 27% less food insecurity, 26% less child poverty, 17% higher incomes, 14% less overcrowding, 9·6% more racial segregation, 8·2% less youth, 7·4% more elderly, and 6·2% less influenza vaccination, compared to least social distancing areas. Interpretation: Healthier and wealthier counties displayed a social distancing privilege gap, measured via smartphone mobility change. Structural inequities in this key countermeasure will influence immunity, and disease incidence and mortality. Funding: None Declaration of Interests: Authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The aggregated public county-level data analyzed in this study were not considered human subjects research and exempted from further ethics review.