Swedish students are worst at following Covid restrictions –

A comparison included in a new study included Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Great Britain.

The study showed that three-quarters of students in Great Britain followed their country’s recommendations, while less than half of students in Sweden did the same.

Girls and older students are more thorough

In general, among countries, those who followed the guidelines the most were women, older students and those who expressed concern about being affected by Covid-19.

At a country level, adherence to restrictions was linked to the number of days since the lockdown began, strictness of measures and deaths from Covid-19.

– The survey found that short-term stricter guidelines were associated with better compliance with the guidelines in all countries, says Mia Bask, a sociologist at Uppsala University.

Same concerns as everyone else

While Swedish students did not follow the recommendations as much as students in other countries, their anxiety about infection was similar to the national average, the study found.

The information was perceived late

The strictness of epidemic controls has been linked to depressive symptoms in university and college students in previous studies. Previous studies have shown that strict guidelines and the expectation of receiving accurate and early information from decision makers are related to how well the guidelines are followed.

Swedish students, after the English, were the highest thinkers that the authorities did not provide information about the infection in a timely manner.

Data on student compliance comes from an international survey of more than 10,000 college and university students and was conducted May-June 2020.

Scientific Article:

Political strictness, infection rates and higher education student adherence to government measures in the Nordic countries and the UK during the first wave of Covid-19 transmission (G Berg-Beckhoff, M Bask, SS Jervelund, JD Guldager, A Quickfall, F Rabiee Khan, G Oddsson, KA van der Wel, KK Sarasjärvi, S Olafsdottir, V Buffel, V Skalická, S Van de Velde), Prophylactic medicinee.

Contact:

Mia Bask, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Uppsala University
[email protected]