Background
Methods
Sampling and recruitment
Focus group wave and timepoint | Sampling framework |
---|---|
Focus group 1 and 2 (wave one)
October 2020
| • People aged 18 – 45 yearsPeople aged 18 – 45 years • Reported that they had been socialising with family and friends, inside and outside their home (e.g., using the ‘Eat out to help out scheme’), before the ‘rule of 6’ or ‘tier system’ restrictions came into effect |
Focus group 3 and 4 (wave two)
December 2020
| • People aged 18 – 54 years • Reported that they ‘somewhat support’ or ‘somewhat oppose’ the new lockdown measures, with this item acting as a proxy for potential adherence difficulties during the second national lockdown |
Focus group 5 and 6 (wave three)
February 2021
| • People aged 18 – 54 years • Reported being in an occupation that involved working in close proximity with others, but not in an occupation that regularly exposes them to diseases (e.g., health or social care) |
Data collection
Data analysis
Results
Sample characteristics
Wave 1 (22-24/10/2020) | Wave 2 (03-12/12/2020) | Wave 3 (04-06/02/2021) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Focus group
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Total
|
n
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 30 |
Age (range) | 20 - 44 | 18 - 45 | 37 - 51 | 20 - 54 | 21 - 54 | 32 - 40 | 18 - 54 |
Gender (n) | |||||||
Female | 3 | 3 | - | 5 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
Male | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 13 |
Ethnicity (n) | |||||||
White | 4 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 26 |
BAME | - | - | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 4 |
Employment status (n) | |||||||
Employed | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 23 |
Student | 2 | 2a | - | 2 | - | - | 6 |
Unemployed | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 |
Barriers and facilitators associated with COVID-19 symptom identification, testing, and self-isolation
Influences on the interpretation of COVID-19 symptoms
“How do you know the difference between flu and Covid?” P18, FG4.
“…People are brushing things off saying oh it is just my normal cold that I’d get this time of the year and I don’t think people are getting tested and I think that’s why it is spreading a lot more at the minute.” P28, FG6.
Influences on requesting a COVID-19 test
“I probably would now that I’ve heard that the people who have tested positive did have cold symptoms and not the cough and not the fever or the loss of taste or smell so yes”. P25, FG5.
“I did another test and everything frightens you so as long as – if I keep feeling these ways I will keep testing myself, yes” P23, FG5.
“I’d say at least two out of the three to get a test, because you can wake up any day and have a cough, you can wake up another day and just be hot, so I think if you show at least two out of the three then that’s the only time where I’d go and get one.“ P9, FG2.
“…I wouldn’t [get a test] straight away to be fair, no, I wouldn’t straight away. I would obviously stay at home and if it went on for a couple of days then I would get, you know, I would get tested”. P16, FG4.
“…I felt safe knowing that she gets tested a lot and she’s coming home to an environment where we’re okay…” P27, FG6.
“…If I had a temperature and a persistent dry cough then it would prompt me to maybe go and get a test.” P2, FG1.
“I personally wouldn’t go and get one but that’s just because I can work from home, so rather than wasting one I think I’d just self-isolate for fourteen days…other people need it so save it for someone else, I can still work.“ P8, FG2.
“…If I had like the direct symptoms, like cough, fever, maybe not so much the smell and taste but yes, if I had direct symptoms and pretty much I could say it was Covid then I would self-isolate, I don’t think you need a test for that.“ P1, FG1.
“…The tests have very high false positives and they’ve even got false negatives as well. So you can’t, you wouldn’t be able to rely on the test anyway…” P18, FG4.
“Like as much as I’d want to do my part in it, is it worth going to all the trouble because it’s long queues to get a test. You might have to go to [a different town] for a test, like, it’s not a local kind of thing most of the time, sometimes.” P1, FG1.
“I think the testing needs to be either getting hold of it quicker and you get your results back quicker so you can get back to work quicker, but I’ve not known anyone can get a test.“ P6, FG2.
“Yes, yes definitely [I would want to get tested quickly], just so that I can rule it out and get back to work as soon as possible…” P19, FG4.
“Like, if I just felt like I had a common cold, as bad as it sounds, I don’t think I’d go to the effort of like not working and possibly, like, losing money, getting a test” P7, FG2.
Influences on self-isolation
“…She got a notification saying, like, where you’ve been, you’ve been in contact with someone…that is how she knew she had it because before she was just like… you know, it’s just a cold.” P1, FG1.
“…If I then felt ill I would go and get a test and if it came back positive obviously I would stay in but if I got a phone call saying oh you’ve been sat with someone who’s got Corona, unless I am feeling ill, I am not going to do it.“ P4, FG1.
“I believe that if I received a phone-call saying that I’ve been in contact… I’ll go and get a test. I’ll go and get a test. If it comes back positive, I’ll self-isolate. If it comes back negative, I won’t. Just keeping it simple.“ P10, FG3.
“I would only self-isolate if I’d had the test because I feel you’re staying in for ten days and it potentially might be for nothing.“ P2, FG1.
“…Am I going to give up two weeks of pay just because I’ve possibly been in the same room as someone? No but then if I start to feel ill then yes, I’d get a test but at first, no.“ P1, FG1.
“Well if you then have to self-isolate then your partner has to self-isolate and then suddenly, like, you’re affecting their workloads, stresses, everything else and you think to yourself as long as you’re being safe and you’re sticking to the rules, I don’t need this Test and Trace app and that was my personal reason why I never downloaded it.” P27, FG6.
“…Why would I want to go from A to B, very briefly, and then someone, a few hours [later], enters my B zone, and I get a phone-call. Who wants that?” P10, FG3.
“Fourteen days is quite a lot…it damages his education and I think I’d rather give the parents the choice as whether to isolate or not, you know after a week if none of them have got symptoms could they go back or something like that.“ P17, FG4.
“I think now they should be, like, saying to people, look, you know, give it a day or two, you know, take what you’d take if you had a flu, you know, and then see if you do get better…maybe after three or four days, if you’re still feeling absolutely shocking, go get a test.” P11, FG3.
“Yes, they [employers] have been very supportive… and we do get paid for being off.” P6, FG2.
Influences on providing details of close contacts to Test and Trace
TDF domain | Theme | Exemplar quotes |
---|---|---|
Knowledge | Having knowledge about the need to pass on details of close contacts (F) | “If I were to test positive now I could say I went out and met my friend for a walk last week and I’d have to notify them” P28, FG6 |
Skills | Not having the ability to identify close contacts (B) | “…It’d be quite difficult to list who I’ve been in contact with…when I’m in [work] there’s like forty, fifty people” P8, FG2 |
Beliefs about consequences | Belief that passing on details of close contacts is important to protect others (F) | “I think if you know you’ve been in contact with somebody it’s only right to let, you know, let someone know that you’ve been in contact with that person. We don’t know to what lengths Covid can have impacts on [us do we]…” P2, FG1 |
Having concerns about data privacy (B) | “I wouldn’t give anyone’s information to anybody, not without their consent first anyway because it’s what they call it, the privacy and stuff like that.“ P18, FG4 | |
Perceiving negative consequences of passing on details of close contacts (B) | “Most of the people that I know are self-employed and the businesses are struggling anyway since we’ve been allowed to reopen and if they have to stop working again and still pay staff wages instead of their own hours, I don’t think their businesses would survive, so I would feel really bad about giving their details over.“ P7, FG2 | |
“I’d always ask just to make sure, if they wanted me to then I would but then if not, then I’m not going to because then they’re off work and there’s no income and I’d feel awful because they’re not earning what they should earn.“ P5, FG2 | ||
Concerns about the efficiency of Test and Trace contacting people (B) | “So it’s not that I wouldn’t necessarily engage with track and trace but I don’t actually think that they end up getting, passing that information on in like a timely manner anyway, so I think I’d probably just give the people I know I’d been in contact with a call so they could, could isolate.” P16, FG4 | |
Social role and identify | Feeling a moral duty to pass on details of close contacts (F) | “It’s almost like a duty of care isn’t it?” P2, FG1 |
Emotion | Feelings of anticipated regret about the perceived negative consequences of passing on details of close contacts (B) | “I’d feel awful because they’re not earning what they should earn. I just feel like it’s not fair to them people that have been in contact for like, two minutes, like, you’ve just walked past them or you’ve been with them a couple of hours…” P5, FG2 |