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Chapter 53 - Compliance with UK Government Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Patterns, Predictors, and Consequences

from Section 6 - Designing, Leading, and Managing Responses to Emergencies and Pandemics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

By
Liam Wright ,
Elise Paul  and
Daisy Fancourt
Edited by
Richard Williams ,
Verity Kemp ,
Keith Porter ,
Tim Healing  and
John Drury
Richard Williams
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Verity Kemp
Affiliation:
Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant
Keith Porter
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Tim Healing
Affiliation:
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
John Drury
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments implemented a range of measures, ranging from public health campaigns promoting regular hand washing, wearing face masks, and practising social distancing, to closing businesses, restrictions on travel, prohibition of household mixing, and implementation of shelter-in-place lockdown orders. Although many of these measures were backed with the threat of fines or imprisonment, ultimately compliance requires active cooperation on the part of citizens, and some of these measures, notably closing businesses and implementing lockdown orders, entailed significant disruption to citizens’ lives, with potentially large material, financial, and psychosocial costs. This chapter summarises the literature on the patterns, determinants, and consequences of citizens’ preventive behaviours during COVID-19, paying particular attention to the role of socioeconomic factors in determining compliance. It offers some general lessons that may be applied to future pandemics.

Keywords

behaviourbehavioural fatiguecomplianceCOVID-19COVID-19 Social Studyhealth belief modelrisk compensation
Type
Chapter
Information
Major Incidents, Pandemics and Mental Health
The Psychosocial Aspects of Health Emergencies, Incidents, Disasters and Disease Outbreaks
 , pp. 403 - 410
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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