Penn State Students

Abstract:
As the United States continues to be ravaged by COVID-19, it becomes increasingly important to implement effective public health campaigns to improve personal behaviors that help control the spread of the virus. To design effective campaigns, research is needed to understand the current mitigation intentions of the general public, diversity in those intentions, and theoretical predictors of them. COVID-19 campaigns will be particularly challenging because mitigation involves myriad, diverse behaviors. This study takes a person-centered approach to investigate data from a survey (N = 976) of Pennsylvania adults. Latent class analysis revealed five classes of mitigation: one marked by complete adherence with health recommendations (34% of the sample), one by complete refusal (9% of the sample), and three by a mixture of adherence and refusal. Statistically significant covariates of class membership included relatively negative injunctive norms, risk due to essential workers in the household, personal knowledge of someone who became infected with COVID-19, and belief that COVID-19 was a leaked biological weapon. Additionally, trait reactance was associated with non-adherence while health mavenism was associated with adherence. These findings may be used to good effect by local healthcare providers and institutions, and also inform broader policy-making decisions regarding public health campaigns to mitigate COVID-19.

Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to explore public confidence in a COVID-19 vaccine via cross-sectional survey of adult residents without minor children in a rural college town in central Pennsylvania. Secondary measures included vaccination attitudes, norms, efficacy, past behavior, trust in the vaccination process, and sociodemographic variables of education, financial standing, political viewpoint, and religiosity. Of 950 respondents, 55% were “very likely” and 20% “somewhat likely” to take a coronavirus vaccine, even though 70% had taken the flu vaccine since September 2019. The strongest predictors of vaccine acceptance were trust in the system evaluating vaccines and perceptions of local COVID-19 vaccination norms. The strongest predictors of negative vaccine intentions were worries about unknown side-effects and positive attitudes toward natural infection. Sociodemographic factors, political views, and religiosity did not predict vaccine intentions.

Abstract:
Large US colleges and universities that re-opened campuses in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021 experienced high per capita rates of COVID-19. Returns to campus were controversial because they posed a risk to the surrounding communities. A large university in Pennsylvania that returned to in-person instruction in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 reported high incidence of COVID-19 among students. However, the co-located non-student resident population in the county experienced fewer COVID-19 cases per capita than reported in neighboring counties. Activity patterns from mobile devices indicate that the non-student resident population near the university restricted their movements during the pandemic more than residents of neighboring counties. Preventing cases in student and non-student populations requires different, specifically targeted strategies.

Abstract:
Following the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, early outbreak response relied on behavioral interventions. In the United States, local governments implemented restrictions aimed at reducing movements and contacts to limit viral transmission. In Pennsylvania, restrictions closed schools and businesses in the spring of 2020 and interventions eased later through the summer. In a rural Pennsylvania county, we use passive monitoring of vehicular traffic volume and mobile device derived visits to points of interest as proxies for movements and contacts. Rural areas have limited health care resources, which magnifies the importance of disease prevention. These data show the lowest levels of movement occurred during the strictest phase of restrictions, indicating high levels of compliance with behavioral intervention. We find that increases in movement correlated with increases in SARS-CoV-2 cases 9-18 days later. The methodology used in this study can be adapted to inform outbreak management strategies for other locations and future outbreaks that use behavioral interventions to reduce pathogen transmission.

Abstract:
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had wide-spread impacts on health and behavioral patterns. Returning university students represent large-scale, transient demographic shifts and a potential source of transmission risk to adjacent communities. Conducted in Centre County, Pennsylvania, USA from August 2020 to December 2020, a non-random cohorts of county residents 18 years of age or older living in Centre County prior to the return to in-person instruction at the Pennsylvania State University and returning students who were enrolled during the Fall 2020 term underwent testing for the presence of IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 surface spike glycoprotein (S) receptor-binding domain (S/RBD), measured using an indirect isotype-specific (IgG) screening enzyme immunoassay. Despite high seroprevalence observed within the student population, seroprevalence in a longitudinal cohort of community residents was low and stable from before student arrival for the Fall 2020 term to after student departure, implying limited transmission between these cohorts. This implies the potential to minimize the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from high prevalence, geographically coincident sub-populations. Future work should investigate the relative efficacy of specific measures to reduce risk of transmission from itinerant to resident populations and guide communities with high levels of episodic migration and similar social configurations.