Published: Thursday 26th November 2020
Public Health Wales’ Research and Evaluation Division is running two projects to understand the experiences and behaviours of people who have been identified as contacts of positive Coronavirus cases and asked by contact tracers to self-isolate.
The insight gathered is being used to shape Public Health Wales’ ongoing response to the pandemic, assisting the development of communications materials and determining the support people need while they self-isolate.
Through the Contact Adherence Confidence Text Survey (ACTS), people who have been asked to self-isolate are given the opportunity to respond to a series of text messages and complete a short online survey in order to share their experiences of the contact tracing and self-isolation process.
Meanwhile, the Contact Adherence to Self-isolation Behavioural Insights Survey (CABINS), asks individuals to take part in a brief telephone survey and online focus group or interview in order to share their views.
Both projects are helping Public Health Wales to understand the challenges people face while self-isolating and the support that is needed to help others during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Alisha Davies, Head of Research and Evaluation at Public Health Wales said: “Improving our understanding of the factors which influence the Welsh population’s behaviours and actions during the Coronavirus pandemic is essential to shape our public health response. The findings gathered through both projects is invaluable to us and our partners in response to the pandemic.”
Dr Richard Kyle, Deputy Head of Research and Evaluation and lead for this research programme, said: “The last few months have been a learning curve for us all and these projects are allowing us to gain rapid, real-time insight into services and systems that can drive continual improvement in our response. We have developed a research programme which we can adapt to address the key questions as they arise towards better supporting contacts of Coronavirus.”
Both the ACTS and CABINS project were launched in November 2020 and will run until the end of March 2021. This will allow researchers to capture the crucial Autumn/Winter period when community transmission is likely to be at its highest.
You can find out more about ACTS and CABINS here.