Public perceptions and experiences of social distancing and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A UK-based focus group study

Simon N Williams; Christopher J Armitage; Tova Tampe; Kimberly Dienes

is the (which was not peer-reviewed) The copyright holder for this preprint . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04. 10.20061267 doi: medRxiv preprint conducting focus groups online has been found to reduce social desirability bias (although it is worth noting that this is more so where asynchronous or text-only communication is used, and not video-conferencing as in our study). [12, 20] Another limitation of this study is that it did not recruit participants who are deemed at particularly high risk from COVID-19-related complications, for example, individuals aged 70 and over and those living with certain chronic health conditions. [21] Because these individuals are likely to have been significantly affected by social distancing and isolation policy (being required to self-isolate for 12 weeks), their views will be important. It is also worth noting that our recruitment material did encourage those at high risk to apply, though we received no applications from those over-70. This may be partly due to the fact that those over-70 are a hard-to-reach group online, because they are significantly less likely to use social media or be heavy internet users, [22] which, due to the lack of online social support and interaction, might mean they are at particularly high risk of some of the negative social and psychological impacts discussed in this paper. Future research will explore at-risk groups' experiences in depth. Future papers will also explore further the similarities and differences in views and experiences in the perceptions of experiences of participants living in different parts of the UK (e.g. London compared to less densely populated areas), a theme only briefly discussed here due to limitations of scope.