Determinants of Quarantine Compliance in Epidemics in Synchrony with Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background and purpose: In the time of emerging infectious diseases, quarantine is one of the necessary preventive measures to maintain public health. This study aimed at reviewing the determinants of quarantine compliance in epidemics in synchrony with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Materials and methods: A systematic scoping review of studies (2000-2020) on quarantine determinants was done in both Persian and English. PubMed, Embase ProQuest, Science Direct, Google Scholar, MagIran, SID, Iran Doc, and Element were searched using the following keywords: quarantine, social distancing, home quarantine, infectious epidemic, compliance, acceptance, adherence, and non-compliance in both Persian and English. Results: A total of 13,755 articles were found of which 10 eligible studies were included in this review. The main factors inhibiting adherence to the COVID-19 quarantine were financial problems following job loss, lack of adequate education and awareness, low levels of education, psychological pressures, difficulty of the quarantine period, lack of trust, and low supervision. Factors influencing adherence to quarantine included awareness, creating voluntary conditions, clear communication, offering assurance about jobs, moral commitments, high levels of education, and living in urban areas. Economic incentives and effective informative and training campaigns could increase public compliance with quarantine. Conclusion: There is paucity of information about compliance with quarantine during COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, further studies on this issue are needed in Iran and other countries.

Keywords

• quarantine
• social distancing
• epidemic
• barriers
• facilitators