COVID-SCORE: A global survey to assess public perceptions of government responses to COVID-19

Section:

---
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240011
URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0240011
ISSN: 1932-6203
page: e0240011
type: article-journal
issue: '10'
title: 'COVID-SCORE: A global survey to assess public perceptions of government responses
  to COVID-19'
author:
  - given: Jeffrey V.
    family: Lazarus
  - given: Scott
    family: Ratzan
  - given: Adam
    family: Palayew
  - given: Francesco C.
    family: Billari
  - given: Agnes
    family: Binagwaho
  - given: Spencer
    family: Kimball
  - given: Heidi J.
    family: Larson
  - given: Alessia
    family: Melegaro
  - given: Kenneth
    family: Rabin
  - given: Trenton M.
    family: White
  - given: Ayman
    family: El-Mohandes
issued:
  - day: 6
    year: 2020
    month: 10
source: PLoS Journals
volume: '15'
abstract: Background Understanding public perceptions of government responses to COVID-19
  may foster improved public cooperation. Trust in government and population risk
  of exposure may influence public perception of the response. Other population-level
  characteristics, such as country socio-economic development, COVID-19 morbidity
  and mortality, and degree of democratic government, may influence perception. Methods
  and findings We developed a novel ten-item instrument that asks respondents to rate
  key aspects of their government’s response to the pandemic (COVID-SCORE). We examined
  whether the results varied by gender, age group, education level, and monthly income.
  We also examined the internal and external validity of the index using appropriate
  predefined variables. To test for dimensionality of the results, we used a principal
  component analysis (PCA) for the ten survey items. We found that Cronbach’s alpha
  was 0.92 and that the first component of the PCA explained 60% of variance with
  the remaining factors having eigenvalues below 1, strongly indicating that the tool
  is both reliable and unidimensional. Based on responses from 13,426 people randomly
  selected from the general population in 19 countries, the mean national scores ranged
  from 35.76 (Ecuador) to 80.48 (China) out of a maximum of 100 points. Heterogeneity
  in responses was observed across age, gender, education and income with the greatest
  amount of heterogeneity observed between countries. National scores correlated with
  respondents’ reported levels of trust in government and with country-level COVID-19
  mortality rates. Conclusions The COVID-SCORE survey instrument demonstrated satisfactory
  validity. It may help governments more effectively engage constituents in current
  and future efforts to control COVID-19. Additional country-specific assessment should
  be undertaken to measure trends over time and the public perceptions of key aspects
  of government responses in other countries.
language: en
title-short: COVID-SCORE
container-title: PLOS ONE
container-title-short: PLOS ONE
---

is an academic survey of how citizen trust in government relates to that government's COVID-19 response. The results of the survey show that trust in government is the strongest predictor of one's willingness to be vaccinated [@IxB0E6EC].

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