Strathclyde Business School doctoral student, Megan Crawford, joined the Survey of Covid-19 Responses to Understand Behaviour (SCRUB) project in March (https://www.scrubcovid19.org). The project provides actionable behavioural insights for policy and messaging.
SCRUB measures behaviours – such as staying at home or washing hands - and drivers to understand “who needs to do what differently”. Researchers are evaluating behavioural change interventions and their ongoing engagement with policy makers ensures ‘product-market fit’.
With a team of more than 120 international collaborators, SCRUB’s aim is to build a global dataset for local insights. Repeated data collection will track behavioural trends and the impacts of country/regional responses to COVID-19. A global dataset enables comparisons of policy response effectiveness on behaviours like staying home, seeking testing, or using PPE. The survey is modelled on the COSMO project, a WHO/Europe initiative, but also includes additional behavioural components. The group is also collaborating with similar global surveys to share data and resources, minimise redundant data collection and encourage and aid ongoing, rather than retrospective, reporting. All data and materials are being shared and SCRUB is partnering with groups and institutions doing similar work.
Policy interventions like shelter in place orders don’t directly impact COVID-19 cases or deaths. Instead, the link is behaviour: handwashing, wearing PPE, staying at home. Behaviour must be measured to determine if and where these responses/interventions are effective (and which could be applied in other countries/regions). The project aims to identify audience segments and the drivers (e.g., awareness, motivation, resources) and barriers to performing protective behaviours. This is especially important considering the long-term prognosis of the pandemic and the need for sustained health behaviour change.
Megan is presently helping to expand the project into Peru, where colleagues are poised to launch the survey. After President Martín Vizcarra’s public state address last week promoting behavioural science efforts, Megan and her Lima-based colleague, Enver Figueroa, are in talks with the Ministry of Health. The first wave will launch a country-wide SCRUB survey to gather valuable, timely data. The second wave will follow similar efforts in the UK by the Behavioural Insights Team and run various interventions via text and media to help motivate people to follow healthy social practices over the next months of this pandemic, and beyond.