Compliance with self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic not only affected multiple aspects of people's lives, but also required self-isolation measures that the population had never encountered before. Importantly, the prescribed rules for self- isolation were unclear and changing over time. We suggested that in a situation of high uncertainty, people would understand the self-isolation differently. We also hypothesized that commitment with the restrictive measures would be determined by both external and internal psychological factors. The study was conducted on the Internet via Google forms. The study involved 449 respondents aged 18 to 82 (80% of females and 20% – males). At the time of the survey, 52% of respondents were undergoing the restrictions for less than a month, the rest – for 1 to 2 months. Methods applied involved scales of anxiety, depression and PTSD, a differential questionnaire for experiencing loneliness, a questionnaire “Conformity- suggestibility” and an author's questionnaire on the attitude to self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discrepancies between the cognitive idea of compliance with the self-isolation measures and its behavioral implementation were found. The idea of self-isolation was primarily associated with the subjective feeling of changes in the current lifestyle, specifically with the limitations of communication and activity. Therefore, people primarily associated the self-isolation with changes in living space, reduced activity and amount of communication. It was shown that the individuals who comply with self-isolation measures showed higher levels of social responsibility, awareness of their involvement and contribution against the spread of infection. The groups with different adherence to self-isolation measures did not significantly differ in attitudes to the health care system and awareness of the current situation on coronavirus.