Caregiver worry about COVID-19 as a predictor of social mitigation behaviours and SARS-CoV-2 infection in a 12-city U.S. surveillance study of households with children
Recommended Citation
Brunwasser SM, Gebretsadik T, Satish A, Cole JC, Dupont WD, Joseph C, Bendixsen CG, Calatroni A, Arbes SJ, Jr., Fulkerson PC, Sanders J, Bacharier LB, Camargo CA, Jr., Johnson CC, Furuta GT, Gruchalla RS, Gupta RS, Khurana Hershey GK, Jackson DJ, Kattan M, Liu A, O'Connor GT, Rivera-Spoljaric K, Phipatanakul W, Rothenberg ME, Seibold MA, Seroogy CM, Teach SJ, Zoratti EM, Togias A, and Hartert TV. Caregiver worry about COVID-19 as a predictor of social mitigation behaviours and SARS-CoV-2 infection in a 12-city U.S. surveillance study of households with children. Prev Med Rep 2025; 49:102936.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2025
Publication Title
Prev Med Rep
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Understanding compliance with COVID-19 mitigation recommendations is critical for informing efforts to contain future infectious disease outbreaks. This study tested the hypothesis that higher levels of worry about COVID-19 illness among household caregivers would predict lower (a) levels of overall and discretionary social exposure activities and (b) rates of household SARS-CoV-2 infections. METHODS: Data were drawn from a surveillance study of households with children (N = 1913) recruited from 12 U.S. cities during the initial year of the pandemic and followed for 28 weeks (data collection: 1-May-2020 through 22-Feb-2021). Caregivers rated how much they worried about family members getting COVID-19 and subsequently reported household levels of outside-the-home social activities that could increase risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission at 14 follow-ups. Caregivers collected household nasal swabs on a fortnightly basis and peripheral blood samples at study conclusion to monitor for SARS-CoV-2 infections by polymerase chain reaction and serology. Primary analyses used generalized linear and generalized mixed-effects modelling. RESULTS: Caregivers with high enrollment levels of worry about COVID-19 illness were more likely to reduce direct social contact outside the household, particularly during the U.S.'s most deadly pandemic wave. Households of caregivers with lower COVID-19 worry had higher odds of (a) reporting discretionary outside-the-home social interaction and (b) SARS-CoV-2 infection. CONCLUSIONS: This was, to our knowledge, the first study showing that caregiver COVID-19 illness worry was predictive of both COVID-19 mitigation compliance and laboratory-determined household infection. Findings should inform studies weighing the adaptive value of worrying about infectious disease outbreaks against established detrimental health effects.
PubMed ID
39697187
Volume
49
First Page
102936
Last Page
102936
