Population Mobility and Socioeconomic Indicators in California, USA and Ontario, Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Marwah, Aisyah; Feldman, Justin M.; Moineddin, Rahim; Thomas, Ann-Marie

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2021.12.061

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The mobility change was lower in lower-income neighborhoods, and in those with higher proportion essential workers. This finding was consistent with prior studies from the United States, Italy, and Canada that had examined income [7, 9, 26, 27], and from survey data in Canada that similarly reported lower levels of ability to “shelter in place” among lower-income households [28]. Our study separated the analyses of income from that of occupation, and confirmed a similar pattern with occupation to that of income.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Mobility changes following COVID-19 stay-at-home policies varied by socioeconomic measures: An observational study in Ontario, Canada

Wang,

Baral

et al. 2024

Preprint

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In Canada, lower income households and essential workers and were disproportionately at risk of SARS-CoV-2. Early in the pandemic, stay-at-home restriction policies were used to limit virus transmission. There remains an evidence gap in how changes in mobility, in response to the policies, varied across socioeconomic measures in Canada. The study objective was to describe the variability in mobility change to two restrictions, by neighborhood-level income and by proportion essential workers across five regions in Ontario, Canada. The first restriction was implemented on March 17, 2020 in all five regions; and the second restriction was implemented in November 23, 2020 in two of the regions. Using cell-phone mobility data aggregated to the census tract, we compared the average mobility (% of devices that travelled outside their “primary location”) three weeks before and after each restriction. We defined the adjusted mobility change via pre-restriction mobility subtracted from post-restriction, adjusted for 2019 levels. We used difference-in-differences analysis to quantify effect modification of the second restriction’s effect by socioeconomic measures. With the first restriction, crude mobility fell from 77.7% to 41.6% across the five regions. The adjusted mobility change to the first restriction was largest in the highest-income neighborhoods (-43.3% versus -38.4%) and in neighborhoods with the fewest essential workers (-44.5% versus -37.6%). The overall adjusted mobility change to the second restriction was small: -0.96% (95% confidence intervals, -1.53 to -0.38%). However, there was evidence of effect modification by socioeconomic measures (less pronounced decrease in lower-income neighborhoods and more essential workers). The findings suggest a temporal saturation effect of restrictions over subsequent waves, and a saturation effect by income and occupation, leading to prevention gaps across populations by socioeconomic measures. Findings highlight the need for tailored approaches at the intersections of income and occupation when addressing epidemics of novel and resurging respiratory pathogens.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Mobility changes following COVID-19 stay-at-home policies varied by socioeconomic measures: An observational study in Ontario, Canada

Wang,

Baral

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Neighbourhood influences on youth mental health and stress levels during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic

Wray,

Martin,

Ferguson

et al. 2023

Cities & Health

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The role of the California tier system in controlling population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic

Schwarz

Teyton

et al. 2023

BMC Public Health

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Background Policies to restrict population mobility are a commonly used strategy to limit the transmission of contagious diseases. Among measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic were dynamic stay-at-home orders informed by real-time, regional-level data. California was the first state in the U.S. to implement this novel approach; however, the effectiveness of California’s four-tier system on population mobility has not been quantified. Methods Utilizing data from mobile devices and county-level demographic data, we evaluated the impact of policy changes on population mobility and explored whether demographic characteristics explained variability in responsiveness to policy changes. For each California county, we calculated the proportion of people staying home and the average number of daily trips taken per 100 persons, across different trip distances and compared this to pre-COVID-19 levels. Results We found that overall mobility decreased when counties moved to a more restrictive tier and increased when moving to a less restrictive tier, as the policy intended. When placed in a more restrictive tier, the greatest decrease in mobility was observed for shorter and medium-range trips, while there was an unexpected increase in the longer trips. The mobility response varied by geographic region, as well as county-level median income, gross domestic product, economic, social, and educational contexts, the prevalence of farms, and recent election results. Conclusions This analysis provides evidence of the effectiveness of the tier-based system in decreasing overall population mobility to ultimately reduce COVID-19 transmission. Results demonstrate that socio-political demographic indicators drive important variability in such patterns across counties.

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Population Mobility and Socioeconomic Indicators in California, USA and Ontario, Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Mobility changes following COVID-19 stay-at-home policies varied by socioeconomic measures: An observational study in Ontario, Canada

Mobility changes following COVID-19 stay-at-home policies varied by socioeconomic measures: An observational study in Ontario, Canada

Neighbourhood influences on youth mental health and stress levels during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic

The role of the California tier system in controlling population mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic

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