Principal investigator: Eduarda Miller de Figueiredo
Source: https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/40532
Location of the Intervention: Brazil
Sample Size: 17.254
Sector: Health Insurance
Primary Variable of Interest: Insulation
Type of Intervention: Social isolation
Methodology: Others
Summary
The Covid-19 pandemic necessitates the adoption of isolation measures to contain the spread of the virus. However, in a country like Brazil, with precarious housing, such a measure may encounter a limiting factor in its application. This article studies which elements of well-being influence the practice of social isolation by Brazilian individuals. The results suggest that the presence of green or open areas and knowledge about the disease increases the likelihood of an individual practicing social isolation. However, the authors emphasize that the respondents to the questionnaire are from a spectrum of the population with above-average income and education levels.
- Policy Problem
Until the emergence of vaccines for the coronavirus, social distancing was the available tool to mitigate the spread of the virus (Flaxman et al., 2020). Thus, within this context, several aspects influence the adoption of isolation measures, such as education, income, stress levels, misinformation, and even political aspects (Bezerra et al., 2020; Machado et al., 2020; Ajzenman, Cavalcanti and Mata, 2020). In Brazil, housing conditions are precarious, which seems to be a limiting factor for home isolation measures, thus aggravating the psychological effects that come from the need for confinement (Pires, 2020; Brooks et al., 2020).
Therefore, the aim of this article was to test the hypothesis of which elements of well-being influence the behavior of individuals during the social isolation that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Implementation and Evaluation Context
As will be explained below, the study was conducted using an online form, thus it has an opinion poll format which did not require requesting the identification of the respondents or evaluation by the Ethics Committee. Furthermore, the authors emphasize that, because of this, it is not possible to extrapolate beyond the data collected from the Brazilian population.
- Policy/Program Details
To conduct the research, the authors created an online form using the Google platform, which yielded 17.254 responses from all Brazilian states. As the dependent variable, the authors used the responses given by individuals to the question regarding the level of isolation they adopted, as follows:
- 1 = I don't practice isolation;
- 2 = I practice isolation partially;
- 3 = I practice total isolation.
The control variables are: green or open area, physical activity, variation in sleep hours, elderly individuals, sex, and whether isolation is believed to reduce the number of victims. Except for the sleep variable, which has three response options (sleeps fewer hours, sleeps more hours, and no change in sleep hours), all other variables are binary variables.
The majority of respondents are women with an income between 2 and 5 minimum wages (31,16%). Of those who responded, around half have postgraduate degrees, while 9,32% only have primary education. Regarding the level of isolation, the responses varied: 11,2% are not isolating, 57,2% are partially isolating, and 31,4% are practicing total isolation. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that 56% of the elderly are practicing total isolation.
- Method
A multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the marginal effects, since this model allows the use of dependent variables that assume more than two categories, which is the case for this dependent variable, as explained previously. With this model, the probability that an individual is in a given category is obtained.j".
- Main results
The results demonstrate that the variable "elderly" shows a greater magnitude in increasing the probability of an individual being in total isolation, which is justified as a prior consequence of the higher risk of death in elderly people who contract the coronavirus. The estimations also suggest that men are less likely to be isolated and that the belief that social isolation helps reduce the number of Covid-19 victims increases the probability of the individual practicing total isolation by 0,15 percentage points. This belief may be related to fear for their own health, as well as the fear of infecting other people. Therefore, decisions regarding social isolation involve cost-benefit assessments from both an individual and societal perspective (Brooks et al., 2020; Bavel et al., 2020).
Regarding green spaces, the results demonstrate that the presence of this space in their residence represents an increased probability of the individual practicing total isolation. Individuals who engage in physical activity also showed a higher probability of total isolation. Individuals who have slept more hours showed a 0,017 percentage point higher probability of practicing total isolation compared to those who had no variation in the amount of hours of sleep.
The variable "green space" corroborates the relationship between housing quality and well-being, where the characteristics of the living space (temperature, water and air quality, cleanliness, for example) influence well-being during social isolation. Thus, the results suggest that access to green or open areas in residences can mitigate the discomforts of social isolation.
- Lessons in Public Policy
The results suggest that variables related to well-being and knowledge about the risks of COVID-19 influence the practice of social isolation. However, the authors emphasize that these data refer to a segment of the population with higher income and education levels than the national average, which therefore suggests the need for a complementary analysis for different population groups. Nevertheless, it is the first indication that it is necessary to take into account household well-being factors when developing strategies to cope with the pandemic.
Reference
Influence of home well-being conditions on the practice of social isolation during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Journal of Health & Biological Sciences, v. 8, n. 1, p. 1-7, 2020.
