The Social Distance Scale (v1): A Screening Instrument to Assess Patient Adherence to Prevention Strategies during...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Development of a brief self-report screening measure for social distancing and self-protective behaviors during pandemics.
• Focus on behaviors critical for preventing and reducing COVID-19 transmission.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create and validate a reliable screening tool for assessing adherence to pandemic-related protective behaviors.
• To develop subscales measuring specific aspects of social distancing.

Main Methods:

• Generated an item pool of 29 questions to estimate behavior frequency.
• Conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis for item reduction and subscale development.
• Collected responses from 401 young adults via an anonymous online survey.

Main Results:

• A 14-item Social Distance Scale (SDS) was developed with four subscales: Isolation from Community (IC), Work from Home (WH), Family Contact (FC), and Protective Behaviors (PB).
• Initial psychometric evaluation demonstrated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the SDS.
• The scale effectively measures adherence to key COVID-19 prevention strategies.

Conclusions:

• The Social Distance Scale (v1) is a promising instrument for population and individual-level application.
• The scale can be used with COVID-19 testing to analyze social distancing factors and transmission.
• Provides a reliable screening measure for health providers to assess patient risk and guide interventions.