RAPID: Identifying the Determinants of Household Emergency Preparedness and Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

为了管理和遏制毁灭性的COVID-19大流行，医学科学家正在竞相了解病毒如何传播，如何攻击身体以及如何治疗其症状。同样重要的是，社会科学家要了解冠状病毒感染的威胁如何影响人类行为，以便改善预测和遏制传播的公共卫生战略。COVID-19的威胁在全国各地引发了截然不同的心理和行为反应。有些人遵守医学专家的保护行动建议（PAR），通过社交距离（保持六英尺的距离）等行动限制他们的暴露，其他人通过自我实施更极端的隔离超过这些PAR，还有一些人无视PAR，继续他们的正常活动或在没有呼吸保护的情况下聚集在一起。该快速反应研究（RAPID）项目的目标是确定对COVID-19威胁的不同行为反应的决定因素，包括遵守官方PAR（例如，社交距离，频繁洗手）和家庭用品的储存（例如，不易腐烂的食物、清洁用品）。随着对COVID PAR合规性和储备的决定因素有了更好的了解，公共卫生当局可以制定更有效的信息，以帮助减少COVID和其他流行性疾病的威胁。此外，对于公共卫生当局无法改变的因素（例如，该研究项目基于2019年对波特兰（俄勒冈州）大都会地区居民的地震准备意向和预期未来地震的实际准备情况进行的调查中收集的数据，以及2020年对博伊西州立大学学生、教职员工和教职员工的应急准备和应对包括新冠肺炎在内的各种危害的调查。它还建立在2013年对中国H7N9流感和德克萨斯州季节性流感相关风险认知和准备的一系列研究的基础上。这个新项目将涉及对1000个波特兰都会区进行邮件调查，了解他们对COVID威胁的看法和反应。调查问卷将重复2019年调查中有关地震应急准备的一些相同项目，并增加新的针对COVID和家庭储备的项目。此外，作为该项目的一部分，博伊西州立大学的学生，教师和工作人员将接受调查的一些新的，COVID特定的调查项目。通过新的调查数据，研究团队将能够得出有意义的结论，了解不同类型的预期灾害和不同概况的疾病威胁之间的感知和准备行为如何变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

To manage and contain the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, medical scientists are racing to understand how the virus spreads, how it attacks the body, and how to treat its symptoms. It is equally important for social scientists to understand how the threat of coronavirus infection affects human behavior, so that public health strategies to predict and contain the spread can be improved. The COVID-19 threat has been eliciting dramatically varying psychological and behavioral responses throughout the country. Some people comply with medical experts’ protective action recommendations (PARs) to limit their exposure through actions such as social distancing (maintaining a six-foot distance), others exceed those PARs by self-imposing more extreme isolation, and still others disregard PARs, continuing their normal activities or congregating in close proximity without respiratory protection. The objective of this Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project is to identify determinants of varying behavioral responses to COVID-19 threat, including compliance with official PARs (e.g., social distancing, frequent hand washing) and stockpiling of household supplies (e.g., nonperishable food, cleaning supplies). With a better understanding of the determinants of COVID PAR compliance and stockpiling, public health authorities can develop more effective messages to help reduce the threat of COVID and other pandemic diseases. In addition, for factors that public health authorities cannot change (e.g., people’s demographic characteristics), the project will examine audience segmentation strategies that can be used to guide the tailoring of communication to specific population groups.This research project builds on data gathered during a 2019 survey of Portland (Oregon) Metro area residents’ seismic preparedness intentions and actual preparedness in anticipation of a future earthquake, as well as on a 2020 survey of Boise State University students, staff, and faculty emergency preparedness and response for a variety of hazards, including COVID. It also builds upon a set of 2013 studies of risk perceptions and preparedness related to H7N9 influenza in China and seasonal influenza in Texas. This new project will involve a mail survey of 1000 Portland Metro area regarding their perceptions of, and responses to, the COVID threat. The questionnaire will repeat some of the same items about seismic emergency preparedness as in the 2019 survey, adding new items specific to COVID and to household stockpiling in the face of the pandemic. Also as part of this project, Boise State students, faculty, and staff will be surveyed with a number of the new, COVID-specific survey items. With the new survey data, the research team will be able to draw meaningful conclusions about how perceptions and preparedness behaviors vary across different types of anticipated disasters and across disease threats with different profiles.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.