Laboratory

Population Dynamics and Sustainable Well-Being

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Project

The COVID-19 Health Behavior Survey

Daniela Perrotta, Jessica Donzowa, Emilio Zagheni, André Grow-Böser, Emanuele Del Fava, Beatriz Sofía Gil Clavel; in Collaboration with Jorge Cimentada (MPIDR), Francesco Rampazzo (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

We designed, conducted, and analyzed a large cross-national online survey to assess the health, behaviors, social contacts, and attitudes of people in response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Detailed Description

Rapid response surveys, with participants recruited via targeted Facebook advertisement, provide insights into people’s early responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

© Perrotta, D., Grow, A., Rampazzo, F., Cimentada, J., Del Fava, E., Gil-Clavel, S., & Zagheni, E. (2021). Behaviours and attitudes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a cross-national Facebook survey. EPJ data science, 10(1), 17. / Perrotta, D., Del Fava, E., & Zagheni, E. (2021). The role of vulnerability in mediating the relationship between threat perception and the use of face masks in the context of COVID-19. In Workshop Proceedings of the 15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.

1. The scatterplot shows the relationship between the threat of COVID-19 perceived by women (y-axis) and men (x-axis), for different types of threat, and by age groups. We observe that the threat perception is significantly higher among women than men and among older adults than younger people.
2. The heatmap shows the adoption rate of face masks in relation to the threat perceived personally (x-axis) across countries (y-axis). The threat perception serves as an indicator of differentiated behavioral responses in the population with subgroups perceiving higher threat perceptions being more likely to adopt preventive behaviors.   
3. The scatterplot shows the relationship between the threat perception to oneself by respondents with (y-axis) or without (x-axis) vulnerability, by country.  While the vulnerable groups cluster by country, from lowest threat perception in Germany to highest in the United Kingdom, we measure that the threat perception is much higher among vulnerable segments of the population. 

Publications

Donzowa, J.; Perrotta, D.; Zagheni, E.:

Assessing self-selection biases in online surveys: evidence from the COVID-19 Health Behavior Survey

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2023-047. (2023)    

Grow, A.; Perrotta, D.; Del Fava, E.; Cimentada, J.; Rampazzo, F.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.; Flores, R. D.; Ventura, I.; Weber, I. G.:

Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society/A 185:S2, S343–S363. (2022)    

Grow, A.; Perrotta, D.; Del Fava, E.; Cimentada, J.; Rampazzo, F.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.; Flores, R. D.; Ventura, I.; Weber, I. G.:

How reliable is Facebook’s advertising data for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2021-006. (2021)    

Liu, C. Y.; Berlin, J.; Kiti, M. C.; Del Fava, E.; Grow, A.; Zagheni, E.; Melegaro, A.; Jenness, S. M.; Omer, S. B.; Lopman, B.; Nelson, K.:

Rapid review of social contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

medRxiv preprints. unpublished. (2021)    

Liu, C. Y.; Berlin, J.; Kiti, M. C.; Del Fava, E.; Grow, A.; Zagheni, E.; Melegaro, A.; Jenness, S. M.; Omer, S. B.; Lopman, B.; Nelson, K.:

Rapid review of social contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Epidemiology 32:6, 781–791. (2021)    

Perrotta, D.; Del Fava, E.; Zagheni, E.:

The role of vulnerability in mediating the relationship between threat perception and the use of face masks in the context of COVID-19

In: Workshop Proceedings of the Fifteenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2021): 7 June 2021 (virtual), 1–4. Palo Alto, CA: AAAI Press. (2021)    

Perrotta, D.; Grow, A.; Rampazzo, F.; Cimentada, J.; Del Fava, E.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.:

Behaviours and attitudes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a cross-national Facebook survey

EPJ Data Science 10:17, 1–13. (2021)    

Del Fava, E.; Cimentada, J.; Perrotta, D.; Grow, A.; Rampazzo, F.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.:

The differential impact of physical distancing strategies on social contacts relevant for the spread of COVID-19

medRxiv preprints. unpublished. (2020)    

Grow, A.; Perrotta, D.; Del Fava, E.; Cimentada, J.; Rampazzo, F.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.:

Addressing public health emergencies via Facebook surveys: advantages, challenges, and practical considerations

SocArXiv papers. unpublished. (2020)    

Grow, A.; Perrotta, D.; Del Fava, E.; Cimentada, J.; Rampazzo, F.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.:

Addressing public health emergencies via Facebook surveys: advantages, challenges, and practical considerations

Journal of Medical Internet Research 22:12, e20653–e20653. (2020)    

Klüsener, S.; Schneider, R.; Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, M.; Dudel, C.; Loichinger, E.; Sander, N.; Backhaus, A.; Del Fava, E.; Esins, J.; Fischer, M.; Grabenhenrich, L.; Grigoriev, P.; Grow, A.; Hilton, J. D.; Koller, B.; Myrskylä, M.; Scalone, F.; Wolkewitz, M.; Zagheni, E.; Resch, M. M.:

Forecasting intensive care unit demand during the COVID-19 pandemic: a spatial age-structured microsimulation model

medRxiv preprints. unpublished. (2020)    

Perrotta, D.; Grow, A.; Rampazzo, F.; Cimentada, J.; Del Fava, E.; Gil-Clavel, B. S.; Zagheni, E.:

Behaviors and attitudes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a cross-national Facebook survey

medRxiv preprints. unpublished. (2020)