The influence of COVID-19 risk perception and vaccination status on the number of social contacts across Europe: insights from the CoMix study

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Abstract Background The SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics have been greatly modulated by human contact behaviour. To curb the spread of the virus, global efforts focused on implementing both Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) and pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccination. This study was conducted to explore the influence of COVID-19 vaccination status and risk perceptions related to SARS-CoV-2 on the number of social contacts of individuals in 16 European countries. This is important since insights derived from the study could be utilized in guiding the formulation of risk communication strategies. Methods We used data from longitudinal surveys conducted in the 16 European countries to measure social contact behaviour in the course of the pandemic. The data consisted of representative panels of participants in terms of gender, age and region of residence in each country. The surveys were conducted in several rounds between December 2020 and September 2021. We employed a multilevel generalized linear mixed effects model to explore the influence of risk perceptions and COVID-19 vaccination status on the number of social contacts of individuals. Results The results indicated that perceived severity played a significant role in social contact behaviour during the pandemic after controlling for other variables. More specifically, participants who perceived COVID-19 to be a serious illness made fewer contacts compared to those who had low or neutral perceptions of the COVID-19 severity. Additionally, vaccinated individuals reported significantly higher number of contacts than the non-vaccinated. Further-more, individual-level factors played a more substantial role in influencing contact behaviour than country-level factors. Conclusion Our multi-country study yields significant insights on the importance of risk perceptions and vaccination in behavioral changes during a pandemic emergency. The apparent increase in social contact behaviour following vaccination would require urgent intervention in the event of emergence of an immune escaping variant. Hence, insights derived from this study could be taken into account when designing, implementing and communicating COVID-19 interventions.

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