Abstract
Tools that can be used to collect behavioural data during pandemics are needed to inform policy and practice. The objective of this project was to develop the Your COVID-19 Risk tool in response to the global spread of COVID-19, aiming to promote health behaviour change. We developed an online resource based on key behavioural evidence-based risk factors related to contracting and spreading COVID-19. This tool allows for assessing risk and provides instant support to protect individuals from infection. The Risk Estimation Questions assessed users’ location, age, gender, work environment, day-to-day behaviours currently performed, and conditions under which these behaviours would change. Users were also asked to estimate how often they keep their distance from others in public and regularly wash their hands, and the procedures they follow to do so. A multidisciplinary research team of more than 150 international experts developed the tool. Over 60,000 users in more than 150 countries have assessed their risk and provided data. The majority of respondents reported that they almost always keep their distance from others in public places, and most participants reported washing their hands after touching public or shared surfaces or when entering buildings. The tool, data, and results were openly shared to support government and health agencies developing behaviour change interventions. This tool creates a blueprint for similar digital infrastructure that can be replicated and used in future pandemics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 223 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Behavior Research Methods |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Early online date | 14 Jul 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2025 |
Bibliographical note
The project was initiated by the Academy of Behaviour Change (https://a-bc.eu), a Dutch non-profit foundation contributing to the theory, methodology, application, and knowledge translation of behaviour change science, to support prevention organisations in developing effective behaviour change interventions, campaigns, and programs. The tool was developed by over 150 expert volunteers, most of them listed as authors, who contributed their time and expertise to develop, implement, and disseminate the tool internationally.Data Availability Statement
Consistent with the Open Science principles to make all materials, source code, analysis scripts, and data freely available, everything produced in this project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution licenses or similarly, and available from the project’s GitLab repositories https://gitlab.com/a-bc/your-covid-19-risk and https://gitlab.com/a-bc/your-covid-19-risk-data. The files in both repositories are also available through the project’s main Open Science Framework repository available at https://osf.io/vkdyt/. The frozen registrations in component projects will retain the state of these files regardless of whether the Git repository is updated in the future.Funding
The project was conducted without external funding on basis of voluntary work by all researchers and practitioners involved.
Keywords
- health behaviour change
- Impact
- RISK
- people
- strategies
- systems
- CoVID-19