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Review
. 2021 Jan;6(1):e004450.
doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004450.

Behaviour adoption approaches during public health emergencies: implications for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Mohamed F Jalloh  1 , Aasli A Nur  2 , Sophia A Nur  3 , Maike Winters  4 , Jamie Bedson  5 , Danielle Pedi  6 , Dimitri Prybylski  3 , Apophia Namageyo-Funa  3 , Kathy M Hageman  3 , Brian J Baker  3 , Mohammad B Jalloh  7 , Eugenia Eng  8 , Helena Nordenstedt  4 , Avi J Hakim  9
Affiliations
Review

Behaviour adoption approaches during public health emergencies: implications for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Mohamed F Jalloh et al. BMJ Glob Health. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Human behaviour will continue to play an important role as the world grapples with public health threats. In this paper, we draw from the emerging evidence on behaviour adoption during diverse public health emergencies to develop a framework that contextualises behaviour adoption vis-à-vis a combination of top-down, intermediary and bottom-up approaches. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, we operationalise the contextual framework to demonstrate how these three approaches differ in terms of their implementation, underlying drivers of action, enforcement, reach and uptake. We illustrate how blended strategies that include all three approaches can help accelerate and sustain protective behaviours that will remain important even when safe and effective vaccines become more widely available. As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and prepares to respond to (re)emerging public health threats, our contextual framework can inform the design, implementation, tracking and evaluation of comprehensive public health and social measures during health emergencies.

Keywords: COVID-19; control strategies; epidemiology; prevention strategies; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Contextualisation of behaviour adoption approaches during public health emergencies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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