COVID-19 Snapshot MOnitoring (COSMO Standard): Monitoring knowledge, risk perceptions, preventive behaviours, and public trust in the current coronavirus outbreak - WHO standard protocol

This archive includes (a) the data analysis template in RMarkdown format, (b) dummy data to be replaced by country-specific data, and (c) a CSS file used by the template to style automatically generated website output.

In light of the rapidly evolving nature of the pandemic, Canada’s response must be agile, but also evidence-based to ensure that the measures and messaging deployed are effective in their goals. It is imperative to understand how citizens perceive the risks relating to COVID-19, as well as their knowledge of the virus and of measures to protect themselves against the virus on an ongoing basis. To assist countries with this goal, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released a Behavioural Insights (BI) Tool for rapid, flexible and cost-effective monitoring of public knowledge, perceptions and behaviours. This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization (WHO)/Regional Office for Europe relating to the usage of this tool.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens’ knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues. Herein, we will only describe aspects specific to the Danish protocol.

The protocol outlines reasons to conduct the study and process involved in data collection, analysis, sample size etc.

In a crisis such as the current outbreak of the newly emerged coronavirus, it is of utmost importance to monitor public perceptions of risk, protective and preparedness behaviours, public trust, as well as knowledge and misinformation to enable government spokespeople, the media, and health organizations to implement adequate responses (WHO Europe, 2017; World Health Organization, 2017). The purpose of this serial cross-sectional study COSMO is to allow rapid and adaptive monitoring of these variables over time and to assess the relations between risk perceptions, knowledge and misinformation to preparedness and protective behaviour regarding COVID-19 in Germany.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens’ knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens' knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues. Herein, we will only describe aspects specific to the Kuwait protocol.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens’ knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues. Herein, we will only describe aspects specific to the Palestine protocol.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens’ knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues. Herein, we will only describe aspects specific to the Saudi Arabia protocol.

The overall aim of the study is to inform COVID-19 outbreak response efforts, including policy, interventions and communications.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens’ knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues. Herein, we will only describe aspects specific to Sicily Island - South of Italy.

The purpose of this serial cross-sectional study COSMO is to assess the relations between risk perceptions, knowledge and misinformation to preparedness and protective behaviour regarding COVID-19 in Turkey.

Project summary The Spanish Ministry of Health and the Institute of Health Carlos III plan to conduct a serial, cross-sectional study to assess the public’s risk perceptions, behaviours, trust, knowledge and other variables related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a questionnaire, data will be gathered by a data collection company via online panels every two months extending the data collection over time as long as the epidemic continues. The focus of the research is to inform effective and appropriate outbreak response interventions, policies and messages. Research questions relate to identify ● levels of and changes in relevant COVID-19-related variables (such as risk perceptions, knowledge, self-efficacy, confidence in institutions, health literacy, vaccine hesitancy, behaviors, affect, worry, resilience, trust in/use of information sources and more). ● whether participants report that they are aware of specific recommended behaviours and adhere to them; ● whether certain patterns can be identified through stratifying data, e.g. as relates to o whether changes in risk perceptions relate to characteristics or events of the pandemic and other variables; o whether risk perceptions or other variables relate to prevention behaviours o whether low knowledge and adverse behaviours relate to certain sources of information. This approach allows a citizen-centred approach where insights into population perceptions and behaviours inform COVID-19 actions, alongside epidemiological data and considerations of economic, cultural, ethical, structural political nature and other. Despite limitations noted in this application, this survey can have an important impact on the health and well-being of all citizens and residents in Spain.

In a crisis such as the current outbreak of the newly emerged coronavirus, it is of utmost importance to monitor public perceptions of risk, protective and preparedness behaviours, public trust, as well as knowledge and misinformation to enable government spokespeople, the media, and health organizations to implement adequate responses (WHO Europe, 2017; World Health Organization, 2017). The purpose of this serial cross-sectional study COSMO is to allow rapid and adaptive monitoring of these variables over time and to assess the relations between risk perceptions, knowledge and misinformation to preparedness and protective behaviour regarding COVID-19 in Germany.

From April 2020 to December 2021, Privy Council Office (PCO) led the implementation of the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) Study Phase 1 which longitudinally captured respondents’ perceptions, knowledge, and behaviours in response to the pandemic. The COSMO Study Phase 1 was founded on a comprehensive survey developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), released to assist countries in quickly establishing a data collection mechanism to track the evolving response context related to COVID-19 at the citizen-level. It has enabled PCO to contribute evidence-based, behaviourally-informed insights and recommendations to public communication materials, policy and programmatic considerations, and whole-of-government decision-making related to the Government of Canada’s broader response effort. The first phase of the study collected data across sixteen waves spanning April 2020 to November 2021. This protocol details the COSMO Study’s second Phase, which will continue to monitor the evolving pandemic response context with a new sample of Canadians (including a flexible oversample of diverse sub-segments of the population) and a restructured survey body exploring new thematic areas related to reintegration and recovery.