iCARE Study – About

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Please invite as many of your personal and professional contacts to participate. The more people complete the survey, the more we learn about the spread and impact of COVID-19.

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NEW! Cumulative ongoing results and analyses from Surveys 1 through 6 (March 27 to December 15) on study demographics, participation rates, and adherence to six key health behaviours (59,107 respondents, 175 countries).

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The iCARE Study has published a number of infographics to help share findings and analyses stemming from study data. We encourage the sharing of iCARE Study infographics on social media and other platforms, including news media and research forums.

Browse iCARE Study infographics

We encourage members of the media to contact us.

The iCARE study has received a range of local, national and international media coverage. These news stories have helped raise awareness about the importance of researching and understanding population behaviours and have helped promote participation in the survey.

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The iCARE study is supported by the participation of a large team of international collaborators working in different regions and countries around the world. The iCARE team shares news and more about study results, presentations, and publications as well as knowledge transfer resources.

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Our understanding of the determinants of adherence throughout the pandemic in countries around the world is critical for effective policy planning and communication.

The iCARE team welcomes and strongly encourages dialogue and data-sharing between researchers and policy makers. The study team makes study results, publications and policy briefs available to policy makers and community actors.

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SUMMARY STUDY DESCRIPTION

The International Assessment of COVID-19-related Attitudes, Concerns, Responses and Impacts in Relation to Public Health Policies (iCARE) study: Can we optimise strategies to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve?

The key to halting the rapid spread of COVID-19 and ‘flattening the curve’ is public adherence to drastic, rapidly evolving behaviour-based prevention policies that are being implemented around the world. However, adherence depends on: being aware of the policies (knowing what to do), believing that the policies being put in place are important; and being able to enact the policies, which may be influenced by various personal, family, job, and health-related characteristics.

Further, as we look towards de-confinement, people’s willingness to adhere to new government policies and recommendations (e.g., re: school openings, store openings) will also be critical for helping people ‘get back to normal’ and re-engaging the economy. Unfortunately, policies have varied greatly between provinces and countries, contributing to uncertainty about what the government’s priorities are (health vs. economy) and confusion about which policies to follow.

Understanding people’s concerns about COVID-19, their perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about public health policies, and how they impact what people are (and are not) willing to do will be important for informing policy strategy and how they are communicated, to ensure the best health and economic outcomes. The iCARE Study will capture key data on people’s awareness, attitudes, and behaviours as they relate to the COVID-19 policies, as well as, the impacts that COVID-19 is having on people’s physical and mental health, financial situation, and quality of life.

Data from approximately 250,000 people around the world will be analysed to understand what government policies are (and are not) influencing behaviour and outcomes, and in whom these policies are most or least effective. This will allow us to inform governments on the efficacy of policy measures on both people’s behavior, and on key health and quality of life outcomes.

Read the complete study description

The iCARE study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the CIUSSS-NIM (Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal): approval # 2020-2099 / 03-25-2020.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0