Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Government
May 21, 2020 04:33 PM

MIT researchers: Lack of reopening coordination comes at a cost

Tara Bannow
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Modern Healthcare Illustration / Getty Images

    People's adherence to COVID-19 shelter in place orders is influenced by friends and family even in other states, according to a new working paper. For that reason, researchers said failure to coordinate the lifting of such orders comes at a substantial cost.

    The paper, released Thursday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Initiative on the Digital Economy, found that people's behavior in a given area is "significantly influenced" by policies and behaviors in other, sometimes distant, regions because of their social interdependence. When just one-third of a state's social and geographic peer states adopt shelter in place policies, it creates a reduction in mobility equal to the state's own policy decisions, the paper found.

    "A surprising finding of the study is that it's not just geographic spillovers, but that the social spillovers that sometimes happen at great distance matter a lot in terms of how behaviors in one state affect behaviors in other states," said Sinan Aral, director of the MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy and an author of the study.

    The paper aligns with findings that show an increasing reliance on social media to stay in contact with loved ones during the pandemic. Almost three-quarters of Americans said they view social media as important for staying connected during the pandemic, according to a poll released Thursday from Gallup and the Knight Foundation, and one-quarter said they've used it more since the pandemic began. Nearly half of survey respondents said most or almost all of the content they see is about the coronavirus.

    Aral said the MIT paper has been submitted to a major journal, which is currently conducting peer review. The journal, which Aral declined to identify, agreed to allow the article to be released early given its timeliness, he said.

    The study used county-level data on shelter-in-place orders with movement data from more than 27 million mobile devices, social network connections among more than 220 million Facebook users and weather and population data to estimate both geographic and social network spillovers created by regional policies nationwide. The study tracked data between March 1 and April 18.

    Researchers included charts with the top 20 states that influence its residents the most through a combination of social and geographic factors.

    "What these coordination maps give governors is sort of a back of the envelope way to know which other states they need to be coordinating with in the absence of national guidance on coordination," Aral said.

    The data show Florida is most influenced by New York, despite the great distance between the states. New Hampshire has a strong influence on adjacent Massachusetts, despite being a small state. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Georgia is most influenced by neighboring states through travel. The week after Georgia reopened, the University of Maryland estimated more than 500,000 people entered the state from neighboring states to visit businesses that were open there but not in their own states.

    The findings show that where geographic spillover is high, one state might have to compensate for a neighboring state's loose restrictions by implementing stricter rules that it would have otherwise been necessary, Aral said.

    "So if I'm the geographic or social neighbor of a state that's having lax policies, I—in order to get to the social distancing I want to achieve—have to be even stricter with my own citizens," he said.

    By contrast, when states coordinate, social and geographic spillovers actually help them achieve their targets more efficiently because they essentially provide "free treatments" as the cooperative behaviors of peer states positively influence social distancing behaviors in other states, the study found.

    Previous research has linked social contagion in behaviors like exercise, the use of certain products and voting. Given that, the researchers said it's likely that people's adherence to social distancing policies are affected not only by the policies in their own area, but by those of neighboring regions and those in which their social contacts reside.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    abortion-pill-misoprostol-legal
    Abortion pill case advances to appeals court, on course to Supreme Court
    young doctor medical resident
    Federal physician recruitment program at risk
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Modern Healthcare Alert: Sign up for this breaking news email to be kept in the loop as urgent healthcare business news unfolds.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing