Social response to early-stage government control measures of COVID-19 in Colombia: population survey, April 8-20 2020.

Rivillas, J. C.; Murad, R.; Rivera, D.; Calderon, M.; Sanchez, M.; Castano, L.; Royo, M.

On Monday, March 16, 2020, the government of Colombia announced actions to control COVID-19. These recommendations directly affected the entire population and included: reducing physical contact; reducing mobility and cancelling unnecessary travel; working from home; cancelling mass events; a 14 day at-home isolation period for people who arrived from international trips, or in cases in which someone in the household experienced a high temperature and sustained coughing; as well as increasing the frequency of hand washing and the use of face masks on public transport. In order to understand the public sentiment around these recommendations, Asociacion Profamilia developed an online survey through SurveyMonkey. The survey was completed by 3549 adult people in Colombia (+18 years) between April 8 and April 20, 2020. The survey in Colombia has four components: 1) socio-demographic characteristics, 2) responsibility for care and employment, 3) perceptions on risk and health, and 4) behaviour changes and ability to isolate. The considered socio-demographic characteristics were age, gender, residential area, vulnerable groups, education level, ethnicity, marital status, city of residence, home ownership and type of health insurance. For the socio-economic level, five indicators were considered: education level, employment status, income, household savings and home ownership.