JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

COVID-19 mitigation behaviors, such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and practicing hand hygiene have been and will remain vital to slowing the pandemic.

Objective:

Provide United States prevalence estimates of COVID-19 mitigation behaviors.

Methods:

We used baseline survey data from a nationwide household probability sample enrolled August-December 2020 to generate weighted estimates of mitigation behaviors: wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and practicing hand hygiene. Weighted logistic regression explored differences in mitigation behaviors by demographics. Latent class analyses (LCA) identified patterns in mitigation behaviors.

Results:

Among 4,654 participants, period prevalence of consistent mask wearing was 71.1% (sample-weighted 95% confidence interval [CI] 68.8-73.3%), consistent social distancing 42.9% (95% CI: 40.5-45.3%), frequent washing hands 55.0% (CI 52.3-57.7%), and frequent hand sanitizing 21.5% (CI 19.4-23.8%). Mitigation behaviors were more prevalent among women, older persons, Black or Hispanic persons, not college graduates, or service-oriented workers. LCA identified an optimal mitigation class who consistently practiced all behaviors (67.0% of US adults), a low mitigation class inconsistently practiced all behaviors (20.6%), and a class that had optimal masking and social distancing but high frequency of hand hygiene (12.3%).

Conclusions:

Despite high prevalence of COVID-19 mitigation behaviors, there were likely millions who were not consistently practicing these behaviors during the time of highest COVID-19 incidence to date. Public health authorities should also consider addressing the disparities in COVID-19 mitigation practices through more targeted prevention messaging.