Volume 27, Number 1—January 2021
Research Letter
Attitudes about COVID-19 Lockdown among General Population, France, March 2020
, Valérie Seror, Sébastien Cortaredona, Odile Launay, Jocelyn Raude, Pierre Verger, François Beck, Stéphane Legleye, Olivier L’Haridon, Jeremy Ward, Enquête Longitudinale, and for the Coronavirus and Confinement and COCONEL and Study Group
Table
Opinion about the coronavirus disease lockdown among 1,012 respondents to the Coronavirus and Confinement: Enquête Longitudinale (COCONEL) survey, France, March 27–29, 2020*
| Statement or condition | % Respondents who agreed with statement, by income level (+ MoE) |
p value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | Lower income, n = 216 | Medium income, n = 566 | Higher income, n = 230 | ||
| The lockdown: | |||||
| Is the only effective way to fight the epidemic | 88 (+2) | 81 (+5) | 90 (+2) | 93 (+3) | <0.001 |
| Should last several more weeks to be effective | 93 (+1) | 89 (+4) | 94 (+2) | 98 (+2) | <0.01 |
| Should be strengthened to be effective | 80 (+2) | 75 (+6) | 82 (+3) | 81 (+5) | NS |
| Is disproportionate considering the real gravity of the epidemic | 20 (+2) | 35 (+6) | 18 (+3) | 10 (+4) | <0.001 |
| Should be less coercive to be more acceptable | 22 (+3) | 33 (+6) | 21 (+3) | 13 (+4) | <0.001 |
| Is the consequence of the lack of hospital resources | 66 (+3) | 72 (+6) | 68 (+4) | 54 (+6) | <0.001 |
| Could have been avoided by the widespread wearing of masks | 50 (+3) | 61 (+7) | 51 (+4) | 40 (+6) | <0.001 |
| Could be replaced by mass screening tests | 65 (+3) | 74 (+6) | 65 (+4) | 60 (+6) | <0.01 |
| Has already disastrous economic consequences | 93 (+2) | 93 (+3) | 91 (+2) | 96 (+2) | NS |
| Will cause family tragedies | 76 (+3) | 78 (+6) | 76 (+4) | 75 (+6) | NS |
| Causes too much restriction on civil liberties | 41 (+3) | 58 (+7) | 40 (+4) | 28 (+6) | <0.001 |
| Is an opportunity to develop local solidarity |
91 (+2) |
92 (+4) |
90 (+2) |
91 (+4) |
NS |
| Experiencing financial difficulties because of the lockdown | 19 (+2) | 40 (+7) | 16 (+3) | 6 (+3) | <0.001 |
| Confined in an overcrowded household† | 9 (+2) | 23 (+6) | 7 (+2) | 1 (+1) | <0.001 |
*Sample was randomly drawn from online research panel of >750,000 nationally representative households of the general population in France, developed and maintained by the Institut Français d’Opinion Publique, a survey research firm (https://www.ifop.com). Collected data were weighted to match official national census statistics for sex, age, occupation, size of population in the area of residence, and region. The study design was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Institute Méditerranée Infection (approval no. 2020-018). MoE, margin of error at 95% confidence level; NS, not statistically significant. †Defined as <194 square feet per capita.