Evolving concerns: A longitudinal content analysis of free-text reports from the UK COVID-19 Public Experiences (COPE) study cohort.

Authors

Rhiannon Phillips, Fiona Wood, Anna Torrens-Burton, Clare Glennan, Paul Sellars, Sherina Lowe, Aleysha Caffoor, Britt Hallingberg, David Gillespie, Victoria Shepherd, Wouter Poortinga, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Denitza Williams

Published in

PloS one. Volume 21. Issue 11. Pages e0348308. Epub Nov 10, 2026.

Abstract

Concerns are psychological appraisals of risk that can influence how people respond to threats, including those posed by infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to characterise the evolution of concerns reported by a community cohort during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Content analysis of qualitative descriptions of concerns in a prospective longitudinal online survey (COVID-19 UK Public Experiences (COPE) Study).
At baseline (March/April 2020), when the UK entered its first national lockdown, 11,113 adults completed the COPE survey. Follow-up surveys were conducted at 3, 12, 18 and 24 months. Participants were recruited via the HealthWise Wales research registry and social media. Baseline surveys collected demographic and health data. All waves included an open-ended question about COVID-19 concerns. Content analysis was used to identify the frequency of concerns coded to each category and number of individuals reporting concern(s) within each category at each survey wave, as participants could report multiple concerns.
Across five survey waves, a total of 22,971 open-text responses were received. From these, 41,569 concerns were identified and coded into six main categories of concerns: personal harm (n = 16,353 concerns coded to this category), harm to others (n = 11,464 concerns), social/economic impact (n = 6,443 concerns), preventing transmission (n = 4,838 concerns), government/media (n = 1,048 concerns), and general concerns (n = 1,423 concerns). The proportion of respondents reporting any concern declined from 75.3% at baseline to 65.8% at 24-months. Over time, the proportion of respondents reporting concerns about personal harm increased (baseline 41.8% vs. 24-months 52.7%), whereas the proportion reporting concerns about harm to others decreased (baseline 48.5% vs. 24-months 28.6%).
These findings highlight the dynamic and multi-dimensional nature of concerns reported in this cohort during the COVID-19 pandemic. Monitoring specific concerns longitudinally during pandemics could provide valuable insights to inform communication strategies and development of public health interventions.

PMID:
43007995
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Nov 2026.

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