It can be argued that when it comes to creating public policy to reduce the spread of influenza, one size does not fit all. A recent large-scale study in the Lancet supports this argument.
The five countries considered for the study were Argentina, Japan, Mexico, UK and the US and 900 individuals from each country were interviewed over the phone regarding what measures they would take to reduce the risk of influenza during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. The primary aim was to investigate whether behaviours such as hand washing and social distancing deter vaccinations.
Remarkably, despite the cross national differences in behaviours, this did not appear to affect the participants’ tendencies towards vaccinations. For instance in the UK only ten per cent of the asked participants avoided shaking hands with family, friends or distant acquaintances. In contrast to that, the other countries this was the case for 30-56% of the participants. However, this question was not applicable to the participants in Japan, potentially due to the fact that handshaking is not as customary in Japan. This further highlights the strength of the study to be sensitive to cultural differences. In terms of vaccinations, the range of participants varied from 16-33 % between countries.
There are a few issues worth considering when interpreting the study’s findings. Given that the main way of interviewing participants included calling individuals who owned a phone, it cannot be assumed that these findings would apply to individuals with lower socio economic status. Moreover, the self-reported results of retrospective events may be subject to recall bias and answering questions in a socially desirable way. A replication of this type of study next time an influenza pandemic of the H1N1 scale occurs would be suitable to further substantiate the findings and see whether individual behaviours have changed. Nevertheless, the implication that protective behaviours and vaccinations are complementary to each other offers a holistic view of the precautions individuals take to protect themselves in this type of situation.
At The Online Clinic we believe that it is important to tailor public policy to ensure a desirable outcome, without asking individuals to make unrealistic changes to their lives. Using hand sanitizer and getting vaccinated may sound obvious to some, but as this study suggests this may not always be the case.