In a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers analyzed parents’ non-adherence to public health measures (PHMs) against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for his or her children.

Study: Parental Nonadherence to Health Policy Recommendations for Prevention of COVID-19 Transmission Amongst Children. Image Credit: Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock

People don’t all the time adhere to medical recommendations, including COVID-19-related PHMs; for instance, breaking quarantine or not reporting symptoms. Furthermore, they’re only sometimes honest about medical information. Parents experienced more stress through the COVID-19 pandemic than non-parents on account of additional PHMs for youngsters, akin to school closures and quarantine rules.

The study and findings

In the current study, researchers investigated the prevalence of misrepresentations of COVID-19-associated PHMs and non-adherence to those measures by parents. They recruited a non-probability sample of adults between December 8 and 23, 2021, in the USA (US) for a web based survey about experiences with COVID-19.

The survey queried whether parents ever engaged in seven kinds of misrepresentations and non-adherence behaviors regarding PHMs for his or her children. These were breaking quarantine rules, not mentioning that they knew/thought their child had COVID-19 to someone the kid was with, lying about vaccination status or children’s age to get them vaccinated, avoiding COVID-19 tests, and never quarantining after they were alleged to.

Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and PHMs on underserved populations, data on ethnicity and race were obtained. The prevalence of misrepresentation and non-adherence was examined using descriptive statistics. Multiple logistic regression explored the potential associations between characteristics and misrepresentations/non-adherence.

The ultimate sample comprised 1733 adults and 580 parents with children younger than 18 years were included within the analyses. Participants were, on average, aged 35.9. Most subjects were females (70.2%) and non-Hispanic White (67.1%). Nearly 26% of people reported misrepresentation or non-adherence to one in all the seven behaviors.

Probably the most common behaviors were allowing children to interrupt quarantine rules and never mentioning the person their child was with that they knew/thought the kid was infected. Wanting to exercise freedom as a parent was essentially the most common reason for these behaviors. Other reasons were wanting to make sure a standard life for his or her children and the shortcoming to miss work. No associations were observed between characteristics and misrepresentation/non-adherence.

Conclusions

In sum, the researchers observed that 1 / 4 of participants engaged in non-adherence or misrepresentation regarding COVID-19-related PHMs for his or her children. Preserving parental autonomy was essentially the most common reason. Additional reasons weren’t having the ability to miss work/other responsibilities to remain home and wanting a standard life for his or her children.  

The findings suggest that PHMs to curb COVID-19 spread might need been compromised by parents, contributing to morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, some children might need been vaccinated when it was not evaluated/approved for his or her age. The study’s limitations were the exploratory nature of regression and the non-probability sample, which can underestimate the prevalence of non-adherence and misrepresentation.

Future studies are required to discover people at the best risk of misrepresentation/non-adherence, address parents’ concerns for such behaviors, and implement improved support mechanisms, akin to paid sick leave for family illness, in order that they feel non-adherence and misrepresentation are less mandatory.