Harnessing groups for health in response to public health crises: Insights from the COVID-19 pandemic

In this blog we hear from Irish Research Council DOROTHY MSCA COFUND awardee Dr Aoife Marie Foran on her research which will aim to demonstrate how ‘belonging’ to groups can be impactful health. The social identity approach (SIA) argues that belonging to social groups is important for health, and people’s health behaviours are shaped by their group memberships. Dr Foran’s research will apply a novel social identity perspective to interrogate the relevance of group membership for people’s health behaviour in response to public health crises by using the COVID-19 context.

COVID-19 continues to overwhelm public health resources. Around the world, managing the pandemic is exacerbated by issues such as vaccine hesitancy, how well vaccines work once taken, and a limited understanding of the disease, especially long COVID. While, COVID-19 has pushed us to learn more about how we respond to public health crises, Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organisation’s Emergencies Programme, argued that the public health response to global health crises would be improved through greater considerations of the social psychology of groups. In public health models to date, people’s groups memberships (e.g., nation, ethnicity, religion) have been treated as demographic factors. Yet, belonging to groups is often more impactful for health than health behaviours such as quitting smoking or exercising. This is because people’s group memberships often provide psychological resources (e.g., a sense of meaning, social support) needed to promote positive health and well-being. A social psychological perspective can therefore highlight the health-related benefits of belonging to social groups during times of crisis.  For example, if your group is pre-disposed positively towards taking vaccines, it is more likely that you will be less prone to vaccine hesitancy.

In using the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Foran’s MSCA DOROTHY project will test a novel social psychological approach to disease prevention (vaccine uptake), protection of public health (antibody response), and supporting people’s health following disease infection (long COVID). The first phase of this project capitalises on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be used to examine how membership in various groups (such as nation, family, friends, work, religion) impact COVID-19 vaccine uptake and people’s antibody responses to vaccination. The second phase will involve an interdisciplinary collaboration to focus on neuropsychological and physiological health indices of long COVID as a long-term public health issue. Working with international experts at the School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Australia and the Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Ireland, Dr Foran’s project will provide insights into how and why social groups matter for people’s health and behaviour in response to public health crises.

In Aoife’s own words: “I am delighted to be awarded a MSCA DOROTHY fellowship. It really is a unique opportunity to demonstrate how an integration of social-psychological processes, behaviour and physiology are important for our understanding of public health crises. My research to date has focused on identifying social solutions to protect people’s health. So, my aim for this project is to expand on this research to inform evidence-based policies to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and similar infectious disease outbreaks in the future”.

Aoife recently presented an overview of her project to the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland (Australia), where she is currently based during her outgoing phase of the fellowship. In June 2024, she presented at the 6^th International Social Identity and Health conference at the University of Limerick which allowed Aoife to connect with and discuss her DOROTHY project with potential international collaborators. Aoife also attended a biometric research workshop which is a crucial aspect of the interdisciplinary nature of her project. You can follow Aoife on X @AM_Foran and LinkedIn.