Results from
March 27, 2020 to January 11, 2022
69,420
Total international responses
Average age of respondents
43
years old
Age range of respondents
8 to 120
years old
- View participation rate, demographics, levels of engagement with health measures and behaviours
- Behaviours trends from March 2020 to January 2022
- View hand washing
- View mask wearing
- View physical distancing
- View avoidance of social gatherings (large and small)
- View self-quarantining after travel
- View self-quarantining if infected or likely infected
Results reflect responses from the iCARE study’s convenience samples. Responses from the study’s longitudinal and representative samples are excluded.
Demographics
DEMOGRAPHICS
Responses have largely come from women (71%) between the ages of 25 and 50 (49%), employed (64%), living in urban settings (62%) with a college- or university-level education or higher (44%), and earning an income in the middle third of their respective countries (56%).
Those aged 25 and under represented 18% of respondents, those living in rural settings represented 13% of respondents, those with a secondary and pre-university education represented 21%, and those earning an income in the bottle third of their country represented 15% of respondents.
PARTICIPATION
The iCARE survey’s convenience sample generated 28,125 responses over the first two months.
A total of 69,420 responses were collected over 15 surveys, ending January 11, 2022.
SOCIAL GATHERINGS
SOCIAL GATHERINGS (ALL TYPES)
Avoiding social gatherings is a health behaviour that is overwhelmingly not instinctive. Engagement with this behaviour has been visibly challenging with an overall average of 49% between July 2020 and June 2021.
Low levels of engagement (42%) were seen in September 2020 with a high (68%) in January 2021 which was not maintained.
Engagement with this health behaviour consistently declined from January to July 2021 to a 33% engagement rate in June 2021 and 18% in October 2021. There was an increase in engagement to 39% in January 2022 but still below the overall average from over the entire survey period.
SOCIAL GATHERINGS (LARGE VS. SMALL)
Starting in July 2020, the iCARE study began distinguishing between large and small gatherings.
Over the period July 2020 to January 2022, an average of 76% of responses reported avoiding large gatherings most of the time, compared to 42% avoiding small social gatherings.
Avoidance of large social gatherings had an average engagement rate of 85% between July 2020 and January 2021, decreasing to an average 77% between February and July 2021.
This was followed by a jump in re-engagement in August 2021 (82%) followed by another consistent drop from September to November (average of 56%) and an upswing from 60% in November 2021 to 74% in January 2022.
In comparison, avoidance of smaller social gatherings had an overall engagement rate of only 50% from July 2020 to June 2021, with a peak in January 2021 (72%).
This peak was followed by a consistent decrease in disengagement from February to July 2021 (averaging 44%). After an upswing in engagement in August 2021 (38% after a low of 25% in July), average engagement hovered at an average of 22% from October to December, with an upswing in to 39% in January 2022.
HEALTH MEASURES AND BEHAVIOURS
HAND WASHING
Hand washing has been one of the key health behaviours recommended by the vast majority of health authorities around the world. In places where access to water is reliable, this health behaviour has been widely adopted. From March 2020 to January 22, an average of 84% of all responses confirmed engaging in it “most of the time.”
A similar pattern emerges for the years 2020 and 2021, with a consistent decrease in engagement from January to June (with a marked drop to 64% and 71% in July 2020 and August 2021 respectively) followed by sharp re-engagement.
Engagement levels remained relatively stable from August 2021 to January 2022 at an average of 83%.
MASK WEARING
Mask wearing has been one of the key health behaviours recommended by most health authorities. It was not initially recommended but as health authorities began to talk about its importance — and as it became more and more mandatory in different settings — engagement rates soared month after month, markedly in August and peaking in October 2020.
Despite a small decrease in engagement in November 2020, engagement levels were at their highest in January 2021 (97%) and fell again for an average of 93% between February and June 2021 followed by a marked drop to 62% in July 2021.
There was marked re-engagement in August and September 2021 (averaging 95%) which levelled off to an average 84% for October to December followed by sharp re-engagement in January 2022 (96%).
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
Physical distancing has been among key health behaviours recommended by most health authorities. Physical distancing is not instinctive behaviour and engagement with it has waned over time.
Responses showed an average engagement rate of 80% between March 2020 and January 2021, with peaks in April 2020 and January 2021 (87%). Both peaks were followed by a consistent decline in engagement. Average engagement was 77% between May and December 2020 and 67% between February and July 2021, with a low of 42% in July.
After this low, a marked increased in engagement was seen in August 2021 to 70% and was followed by another consistent decrease until November 2021 (average engagement of 51%) followed by another upswing in December (up to 54%) and again in January 2022 (up to 71%)
SELF-QUARANTINE
QUARANTINE AFTER TRAVEL
Rates of engagement with self-quarantining “most of the time” after travel were initially relatively stable from March to July 2020, with an average of 84%, but have then consistently declined, despite the brief uptick to 86% in January 2021 and to 65% in November 2021.
Overall engagement with this health behaviour between March 2020 and January 2022 was 67%. The highest engagement rate was seen right at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 (87%) and the lowest engagement rate was seen in July 2021 (45%).
QUARANTINE AFTER SUSPECTED EXPOSURE OR IF SYMPTOMATIC
Rates of engagement with self-quarantining “most of the time” after suspected exposure to the virus or if symptomatic are much higher and show much less variability than self-quarantine after travel.
Overall engagement with this health behaviour between March 2020 and January 2022 was 86%. A consistent decline was seen between January and July 2021 (from 95% to 57%), followed by a reajustment that stayed relatively stable at an average of 79% from August 2021 to January 2022. The highest engagement rate was seen in January 2021 (95%) and the lowest engagement rate was seen in July 2021 (57%).
ENGAGEMENT WITH MEASURES OVER TIME
HAND WASHING, MASK WEARING, AND DISTANCING
The average engagement level across the entire survey period (March 2020 to January 2022) was 86% for hand washing, 79% for mask wearing, and 71% for physical distancing.
A peak in all three of these health behaviours was seen in January 2021 (with hand washing at 97%, mask wearing at 92% and distancing at 87%).
Hand washing saw two sudden drops to 64% in April 2020 and to 62% in July 2021 but reached its highest levels of engagement in August and September (95%) and January 2022 (96%).
Once engagement became more normalized, mask wearing behaviour practiced “most of the time” remained consistent from August 2020 to April 2021 at an average of 94%.
This was followed by a consistent decline until January 2022, including a marked drop in July 2021 down to 70%.
Physical distancing appears to have been the most difficult health behaviour to maintain over time, falling below 80% as early as July 2020.
After a temporary peak in January 2021 at 87%, it fell consistently to reach 42% and 44% in July and November 2021 respectively with two marked upswings in August 2021 (70%) and January 2022 (71%).
