Many of the strategies to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, include social and behavioral interventions like handwashing, social distancing, paid sick leave, and risk communication. These measures significantly impact not only disease transmission but also the economy, social life, and other health conditions, such as mental health, substance use, and stress.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) played a crucial role in the pandemic response, and OBSSR worked closely with various NIH institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) to integrate social and behavioral research into the COVID-19 response.
OBSSR helped coordinate urgent and competitive funding opportunities to encourage COVID-19 behavioral and social sciences research. Key research areas included risk communication, adherence and transmission risks related to public health measures, the economic and social impacts of these measures, the resulting effects on health and health care access, and interventions to mitigate these health impacts.
Additionally, OBSSR led an NIH-wide funding opportunity to encourage existing grantees to address key social and behavioral questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. OBSSR also coordinated the development of COVID-19 survey question repositories for the Health Disaster Research Response program and the PhenX Toolkit to facilitate the use of existing items and promote data comparisons and integration across surveys and clinical studies.
Social, Behavioral, and Economic Impacts of COVID-19
In the early stages of the pandemic, NIH leadership met to discuss crosscutting initiatives to address COVID-19 research needs. One significant initiative emerging from these discussions is the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Vulnerable and Health Disparity Populations (SBE COVID-19) Initiative. This initiative encourages research to—
- Improve the prediction of various mitigation efforts.
- Assess the downstream health and health care access effects from the economic downturn.
- Evaluate digital and community interventions to ameliorate these health effects.
This collaborative effort, which involves 21 NIH ICOs, is led by OBSSR, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute on Aging, and the Office of Extramural Research.
