Table 2.
Reasons for noncompliance with COVID-19 health orders by age group. Percentages were calculated as a proportion of noncompliant individuals in each age group.
| Theme | Example | Total noncompliant (n=7456), n (%) | Age category |
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18-31 years (n=1589), n (%) | 32-44 years (n=2668), n (%) | 45-65 years (n=2653), n (%) | ≥65 (n=546), n (%) |
| Cannot afford to miss worka,b | “Work is not canceled, if I don’t go I’ll lose my job.” | 4273 (57.3) | 949 (59.7) | 1689 (63.3) | 1489 (56.1) | 146 (26.7) |
| Mental and physical health needsb | “Total self-isolation would probably drive me to suicide.” | 533 (7.1) | 145 (9.1) | 169 (6.3) | 167 (6.3) | 52 (9.5) |
| Taking sufficient precautionsb | “I already wash my hands regularly and cover my mouth when I cough or sneeze. I am not concerned with catching [the] virus.” | 488 (6.5) | 50 (3.1) | 115 (4.3) | 204 (7.7) | 119 (21.8) |
| No space to self-isolatea | —c | 719 (9.6) | 293 (18.4) | 246 (9.2) | 150 (5.6) | 30 (5.5) |
| Nonessential activitiesb | “Some appointments are in-person. Need to see friends sometimes.” | 366 (4.9) | 72 (4.5) | 91 (3.4) | 156 (5.9) | 47 (8.6) |
| Society is overreactingb | “I think the news media was making everyone panic and overreact.” | 339 (4.5) | 46 (2.9) | 95 (3.6) | 152 (5.7) | 46 (8.4) |
| Do not believe social isolation to be effectivec | — | 281 (3.8) | 61 (3.8) | 92 (3.4) | 96 (3.6) | 32 (5.9) |
| Kidsb | “Really hard to do with little kids - I’m reducing a lot of contact, but not all.” | 129 (1.7) | 6 (0.4) | 79 (2.9) | 39 (1.5) | 5 (0.9) |
| Have to attend in-person classesc | — | 180 (2.4) | 86 (5.4) | 42 (1.6) | 44 (1.6) | 8 (1.5) |
aIndicates that this theme was identified through participants’ responses to a multiple-choice question.
bIndicates that this theme was identified through thematic content analysis of participants’ text responses.
cFor themes only identified through multiple-choice questions, no example response is available.