Public ‘ignored' Scotland's Covid restrictions, study suggests
Ms Sturgeon, who was first minister when the pandemic broke out in March 2020, attempted to restrict people's movements and limit physical contact with social distancing and enforcement measures that included staying at home.
Later, a complex and often confusing five-tier system was introduced that resulted in different local authorities being placed in different tiers.
According to a study by the University of Aberdeen, which examined adherence to restrictions including social distancing, mask-wearing, staying at home and handwashing, many people did not alter their behaviour to follow enhanced local restrictions during the pandemic.
The research suggests that the restrictions may have been more effective if based around factors other than just coronavirus cases.
The study, published in the US journal Translational Behavioral Medicine, looked at behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic in Scotland from March to November 2020, with 1,724 people interviewed at random to get a representative sample.
It analysed people's behaviour before and after local restrictions, and compared behaviours of those living in areas with increased restrictions with those living in areas without.
The study also examined 'intention and self-efficacy' and graded people's intention – and confidence – in following government instructions such as maintaining a two-metre distance from others.
The respondents answered questions about their behaviours from the past week, including if they had left home, had adhered to the social distancing rule, worn a mask in a shop or on public transport and if they washed their hands as soon as they got home.
Dr Chantal den Daas, senior lecturer in health psychology, in collaboration with the Covid Health and Adherence Research in Scotland project, said the research 'can effectively influence public behaviour' in the future.
She said: 'When local restrictions were introduced in 2020 due to an increase in Covid-19 case numbers, we thought we would see a change in behaviour after they were implemented. But this was not what we found.
'It is really important to build an understanding of what could have been done differently and how we can effectively influence public behaviour in the future should we be faced with another public health crisis.
'This research provided insight on the type of information we should aim to collect in future pandemics, to see if we can find better measures to predict cases, examine the need for restrictions and the effect of any restrictions put in place.
'Future research in acute outbreaks should assess behaviour and beliefs about the virus, risk on an ongoing basis and identify the need for intervention even before cases rates start to go up.'
Under the Scottish tier system, which did not come into force until the start of November 2020, the three middle tiers were broadly similar to the English system, where areas were classed as either 'medium', 'high' or 'very high' risk.
The top level was tougher than the highest of England's three tiers and included strict controls on travelling. A lower level in Scotland applied to areas with fewer Covid-19 cases and allowed more freedoms than other parts of the country where infection rates were higher.
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