Working Paper: NBER ID: w28316
Authors: Anne E. Fitzpatrick; Sabrin A. Beg; Laura C. Derksen; Anne Karing; Jason T. Kerwin; Adrienne Lucas; Natalia Ordaz Reynoso; Munir Squires
Abstract: Providing health information is a non-pharmaceutical intervention designed to reduce disease transmission and infection risk by encouraging behavior change. But does knowledge change behavior? We test whether coronavirus health knowledge promotes protective risk mitigation behaviors early in the COVID-19 pandemic across four African countries (Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania). Despite reputations for weak health sectors and low average levels of education, health knowledge of the symptoms and transmission mechanisms was high in all countries in the two months after the virus entered the country. Higher knowledge is associated with increased protective measures that would likely lower disease risk with one exception–knowledge is inversely correlated with social distancing. Respondents largely adhered to mask mandates and lockdowns, but continued coming into contact with others at small, informal gatherings, gatherings not affected by mandates. Knowledge alone appears unlikely to reduce all risky activities, especially gatherings within other people's homes. Even early in the pandemic income loss or stress were commonly reported. Our results suggest that early and consistent government provision of health information, likely reduced the severity of the pandemic in Africa but was not a panacea.
Keywords: COVID-19; Health Knowledge; Nonpharmaceutical Interventions; Africa; Behavior Change
JEL Codes: I12; I15; I18; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Higher health knowledge (I10) | Increased adoption of protective measures (D18) |
| Higher health knowledge (I10) | Increased mask-wearing and hand washing (I19) |
| Higher health knowledge (I10) | Inversely related to social distancing behaviors (C92) |
| Increased health knowledge (I19) | Reduced disease transmission (I14) |
| Government interventions (E65) | Behavior change (D91) |