Purpose

To study how young adult college students are managing their health behaviors and risks related to spreading COVID-19.

Methods

We created a national cohort of full-time college students in late April 2020 (n = 707), and conducted a follow-up survey with participants in July 2020 (n = 543). Participants reported COVID-19-related health risk behaviors and COVID-19 symptoms, and also responded to an open-ended prompt about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their lives. Quantitative data were analyzed in Stata and we conducted content analysis to identify themes in the qualitative data.

Results

For most health protective behaviors (e.g., frequent handwashing, social distancing), participants were less compliant in summer 2020 than spring 2020, with the exception of face mask use, which increased. In each month of the first half of 2020, only approximately half of participants with any symptoms that could indicate COVID-19 stayed home exclusively while symptomatic (there was no meaningful change from pre-pandemic or over the course of the pandemic). In qualitative data, the participants who had gone to bars or clubs at least twice within a 4-week period this summer reported being bored and/or isolated, stressed, and/or taking pandemic safety measures seriously.

Conclusions

These findings suggest multiple areas for intervention, including harm reduction and risk management education approaches for the students who are going to bars and clubs, and creating policies and programs to better incentivize young people with symptoms to stay home exclusively while symptomatic.

中文翻译：

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减少青年大学生 COVID-19 相关风险行为的机会：来自全国纵向队列的见解

目的

研究年轻的成年大学生如何管理与传播 COVID-19 相关的健康行为和风险。

方法

我们在 2020 年 4 月下旬创建了全国全日制大学生队列（n = 707），并在 2020 年 7 月（n = 543）对参与者进行了后续调查。参与者报告了与 COVID-19 相关的健康风险行为和 COVID-19 症状，并回应了关于 COVID-19 大流行如何影响他们生活的开放式提示。在 Stata 中分析了定量数据，我们进行了内容分析以识别定性数据中的主题。

结果

对于大多数健康保护行为（例如，经常洗手、保持社交距离），参与者在 2020 年夏季的依从性低于 2020 年春季，但口罩的使用有所增加。在 2020 年上半年的每个月中，只有大约一半的参与者有任何可能表明 COVID-19 的症状，而在有症状时只呆在家里（与大流行前或大流行过程中没有任何有意义的变化）。在定性数据中，今年夏天 4 周内至少去过两次酒吧或俱乐部的参与者报告说感到无聊和/或孤立、压力大和/或认真对待大流行安全措施。

结论

这些发现提出了多个干预领域，包括针对去酒吧和俱乐部的学生的减少危害和风险管理教育方法，以及制定政策和计划以更好地激励有症状的年轻人在有症状时只呆在家里。