Reactions of older Swiss adults to the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal survey on the acceptance of and adherence to public health measures

Abstract

Rationale An important public health strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic was the protection of people at risk of severe progressions of an infection; namely, older people and people with pre-existing conditions. Objective To improve public health communication, it is vital to understand, which sociodemographic and psychological factors drive older people’s acceptance of and compliance with public health measures. Method This goal was pursued in this three-wave longitudinal online study with older adults, collected between March and June during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 ( N = 327; first and second wave during the national lockdown; third wave: after the lifting of most lockdown measures). Results The results show that overall acceptance of and adherence to the public health measures were high among older adults and even more so for people with pre-existing conditions (e.g., cancer, type II diabetes). However, some infringements of the measures were observed, and the longitudinal analyses suggest that increases in social trust positively influenced acceptance of measures over time, while trivialising beliefs and health fears impacted older adults’ compliance with protective measures over time. Conclusions This study offers insights into the behavioural responses of older adults to an ongoing threat and the associated uncertainty that is part of public communication about the pandemic and protective measures.

Light and Dark core of personality and the adherence to COVID-19 containment measures: The roles of motivation and trust in government

“…Indeed, our results indicate that trust in a government's ability to manage the pandemic was strongly related to the motivation to comply, considerably stronger than LC or DC. However, contrary to previous studies showing that trust in government is directly related to adherence ( Bearth et al, 2021 ; Pak et al, 2021 ; Uddin et al, 2021 ), we found no such a direct relationship. Instead, while LC and DC show stronger direct relations with self-reported adherence, trust in government appears to be potentially a key factor in enhancing an individuals' motivation to comply, but not – at least not directly – the actual adherence.…”

“… Pak et al (2021) found that the importance of trust increases with the measures' stringency: the more restrictive the regulations, the more trust relates with adherence. Likewise, Bearth et al (2021) observed that individuals scoring high in trust in government were also more accepting of containment measures and reported more compliance. The finding was further corroborated among young individuals for whom lower trust in government was related to reduced willingness to adhere to distancing measures ( Nivette et al, 2021 ).…”

“…However, this study goes beyond observing direct relations of the Light and Dark Cores and adherence, and also investigates the mediating role of motivation in this relationship. Furthermore, since trust in government was shown to be a significant driver of both motivation and compliance (e.g., Bearth et al, 2021 ), we included it as a control variable in the model. Finally, the present study contributes to the theory by exploring and comparing the Light and Dark Core constructs.…”

“…Even the best-tailored communications appealing to either prosocial or egoistic motivations are bound to fail when the authority issuing them is deemed untrustworthy ( Bearth et al, 2021 ). The importance of trust in government in the adherence could be explained by the belief that containment measures are designed to curb the virus transmission and serve the community interests.…”

People’s perceptions of, willingness-to-take preventive remedies and their willingness-to-vaccinate during times of heightened health threats

“…Perceived certainty of scientific evidence was measured with the objective sub-scale of Retzbach, Otto (22) with a good Cronbach’s alpha of α = .79. Both the scales for pandemic health fears (α = .92) and pandemic societal fears (α = .81) were taken from studies conducted in Switzerland during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020 [ 25 , 26 ]. Two types of subjective knowledge were assessed by asking “What do you think: How much do you know about a) vaccines in general and b) mRNA vaccines against the corona virus (SARS-CoV-2)” with the response options 1: “little knowledge” to 7: “a great deal of knowledge.”…”