iCARE Study

Understanding people’s concerns to help optimize outcomes.


The International Assessment of COVID-19-related Attitudes, Concerns, Responses and Impacts in Relation to Public Health Policies (iCARE) study


STUDY OVERVIEW

View the iCARE Study overview infographic

The key to halting the rapid spread of COVID-19 and ‘flattening the curve’ is public adherence to drastic, rapidly evolving behaviour-based prevention policies that are being implemented around the world. However, adherence depends on: being aware of the policies (knowing what to do), believing that the policies being put in place are important; and being able to enact the policies, which may be influenced by various personal, family, job, and health-related characteristics.

Understanding people’s concerns about COVID-19, their perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about public health policies, and how they impact what people are (and are not) willing to do will be important for informing policy strategy and how they are communicated, to ensure the best health and economic outcomes. The iCARE Study will capture key data on people’s awareness, attitudes, and behaviours as they relate to the COVID-19 policies, as well as, the impacts that COVID-19 is having on people’s physical and mental health, financial situation, and quality of life.

Data from approximately 250,000 people around the world will be analysed to understand what government policies are (and are not) influencing behaviour and outcomes, and in whom these policies are most or least effective. This will allow us to inform governments on the efficacy of policy measures on both people’s behavior, and on key health and quality of life outcomes.

Read the complete study description

The iCARE study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the CIUSSS-NIM (Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal): approval # 2020-2099 / 03-25-2020. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0

The iCARE Study is led by Drs. Kim Lavoie and Simon Bacon, co-directors of the Montréal Behavioural Medicine Centre located in Québec, Canada.


113,416 responses collected worldwide

Location of iCARE Study participants (Surveys 1 to 15 combined)

iCARE Canadian Longitudinal Study

Do you live in Canada? Tell us how you are coping with the pandemic!