Public Perceptions of Quarantine: Community-based Telephone Survey Following an Infectious Disease Outbreak

Overview

Journal BMC Public Health

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Public Health

Date 2009 Dec 18

PMID 20015400

Citations 23

Authors

C Shawn Tracy

Elizabeth Rea

Ross E G Upshur

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The use of restrictive measures such as quarantine draws into sharp relief the dynamic interplay between the individual rights of the citizen on the one hand and the collective rights of the community on the other. Concerns regarding infectious disease outbreaks (SARS, pandemic influenza) have intensified the need to understand public perceptions of quarantine and other social distancing measures.

Methods: We conducted a telephone survey of the general population in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technology was used. A final sample of 500 individuals was achieved through standard random-digit dialing.

Results: Our data indicate strong public support for the use of quarantine when required and for serious legal sanctions against those who fail to comply. This support is contingent both on the implementation of legal safeguards to protect against inappropriate use and on the provision of psychosocial supports for those affected.

Conclusion: To engender strong public support for quarantine and other restrictive measures, government officials and public health policy-makers would do well to implement a comprehensive system of supports and safeguards, to educate and inform frontline public health workers, and to engage the public at large in an open dialogue on the ethical use of restrictive measures during infectious disease outbreaks.

Citing Articles

Stay-at-home orders during COVID-19 pandemic: an experience from general population in Damietta Governorate, Egypt.

Nour M J Egypt Public Health Assoc. 2022; 97(1):18.

PMID: 36184725 PMC: 9527093. DOI: 10.1186/s42506-022-00115-3.

Remember the past, plan for the future: How interactions between risk perception and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic can inform future Canadian public health policy.

Law M, Wilbiks J, Roach S, Best L Front Public Health. 2022; 10:784955.

PMID: 36033823 PMC: 9413218. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.784955.

A model for the co-evolution of dynamic social networks and infectious disease dynamics.

Nunner H, Buskens V, Kretzschmar M Comput Soc Netw. 2021; 8(1):19.

PMID: 34642614 PMC: 8495675. DOI: 10.1186/s40649-021-00098-9.

People's attitudes towards the use of quarantine in the Covid-19 pandemic in Iran: Validity and reliability study.

Jahanshahi R, Aghdasi F, Mirzaei F, Haghighat S, Sanagoo A, Jouybari L Int J Clin Pract. 2021; 75(12):e14904.

PMID: 34553469 PMC: 8646386. DOI: 10.1111/ijcp.14904.

A Bayesian approach to reveal the key role of mask wearing in modulating projected interpersonal distance during the first COVID-19 outbreak.

Lisi M, Scattolin M, Fusaro M, Aglioti S PLoS One. 2021; 16(8):e0255598.

PMID: 34375361 PMC: 8354471. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255598.

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