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

In a crisis such as the 2020 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. The purpose of this standard protocol for national serial cross-sectional studies 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 each country implementing this study.

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.