Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians, 2020

Introduction 

Coronavirus is a pandemic that has resulted in a dramatic loss of human life and posed a significant challenge to public health. The COVID19 has led to the downward growth of various economies globally. According to the World Health Organization, approximately ten million people globally are at the risk of falling into poverty. W.H.O estimates that half of the world's population is at risk of losing the livelihood (WHO, 2020). The industries, factories, and businesses have closed down, fearing the pandemic, resulting to increased rate of unemployment and loss of livelihood by many households. The World Health Organization has established an increase in the number of undernourished people from 132 to 169 million in 2020. 

Coronavirus has adversely affected Canada. The pandemic had deeply affected the Canadian economy leading to a recession. The economic activities have been affected by the rule imposed by the government on social distancing. This is one of the measures the government has put in place to mitigate the Coronavirus spread. The social distancing rule helps to minimize the close contact among people at the community and workplace by ensuring one is two meters away from the other. The other measure that the government introduced by the Canadian government include avoiding crowding, closing schools, workplace measures, and no public/mass gatherings. This has resulted in an increase in the unemployment rate to 13.5%, which has been the highest since 1976 (WHO, 2020). The pandemic has affected various sectors of the economy. They include sporting, tourism, transportation, media and arts, agriculture, and health. 

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of Coronavirus on Canadians in 2020. We will specifically examine the relationship between having people live in Ontario or Quebec and them avoiding gatherings and large crowds for the sake of reducing the risk of COVID-19. 

Objective  

To establish the relationship between residents of Ontario or Quebec and them avoiding gatherings and large crowds for the sake of reducing the risk of COVID-19. 

Research question 

Is there an association between residence in Ontario, Quebec, and the rate of people who avoid crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19? 

Hypothesis  

We will formulate and test the following null and alternative hypotheses.  

Null hypothesis H0:  there is no association between people's residence in Ontario or Quebec and their avoidance of crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19. 

Alternative hypothesis H1:  there is an association between peoples' residence in Ontario or Quebec and their avoidance of crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19.  

Methodology 

Data source  

The data used in this study was secondary. The study selected it from "Crowdsourcing: Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians". The data was produced by Ontario Data Documentation, Extraction Service and Infrastructure (ODESI) and accessed through the scholar's portal. This crowdsourcing's overall purposes were to collect information on the reaction of the Canadians towards COVID-19 crisis and how it affected their labor situation.  

Variables of Interest   

There were two variables of interest for this data set. The first variable is PROVINCE reporting the province of residence (nominal; residing in one of the provinces). The second variable is CROWDS reporting whether people avoided crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19 (binary; yes or no). 

Results 

Figure 1 represents the histogram for Quebec people on their avoidance of crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19. The graph shows that the distribution is skewed to the right. The skewness shows that most of the Quebec province people avoided crowds and large gatherings with a mean of 1.08 and a standard deviation of 0.272.  Figure 2  shows the distribution of Ontario people in response to crowds and large gatherings. The graph shows that the distribution is skewed to the right. Hence, indicating that most Quebec residents avoided crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19with a mean of 1.04 and a standard deviation of 0.2. 

The . Since the p-value is lower than 0.05, we reject the null hypothesis. Hence, we deduce that there is a significant association between peoples’ residence in Ontario or Quebec and their avoidance of crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19. 

Statistical analysis 

The study used a Pearson chi-square test to determine if there is an association between peoples' residence in Ontario or Quebec and their avoidance of crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19. We chose the Pearson chi-square test because the analyzed variables are independent, report frequencies, and mutually exclusive (Shih & Fay, 2017). The study has confounders that indirectly affected the results. A confounder is defined as a variable or factor that affects the study's outcome, but it has not a point of focus. They usually affect the outcome in a given study if they are not controlled and eliminated. In this study, they comprise of gender, age, socio-economic class, education, and health status. The socio-economic status and level of education impact individual behaviors, thus affecting the way people associate with each other. Educated people are more informed and they tend to avoid crowding as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID19 compared to no education. Health can also affect the study CROWDS variable as people who tend to be more ill are more fearful about contacting COVID-19. Moreover, age is a key confounder as younger people tend to be more outgoing and have a more active lifestyle 

Discussion 

The study examines the relationship between the residence in Ontario, Quebec, and the rate of people who avoid crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to reduce the risk of COVID-19. The results point out the most of the residents of Ontario province adhere to the precaution to avoid crowds and large gatherings compared to Quebec. This implies that the residences of Ontario are more cautious compared to those in Quebec. Further, it was established that there was a significant association linking the residence in Ontario  or  Quebec and the rate of people who avoid crowds and large gatherings. Hence, the precaution towards avoiding crowds and large gatherings has played a significant role in reducing the risk of COVID-19. Residing in Ontario increases the likelihood to avoid crowds and large gatherings as a precaution to curb COVID19. Therefore, the spread of COVID19 between the two provinces is minimal since most residents have obeyed the precaution to avoid crowds and large gatherings.  

This study's potential confounders comprise gender, age, socio-economic class, education, and health status. The study controlled and eliminated the confounder by standardization of the data based on the population of Canada. Hence, mitigating their effect of the results. The study's limitation is the lack of specific reported frequency for the CROWDS variables that are binary (Yes/No) that defines the answer of YES or NO. From table 1, we can demonstrate that the assumption for independence is met. Hence, we can test the goodness of fit. The chi-square test indicates that the assumption on the goodness of fit test is met. The study will use the data for analysis to establish the relationship between the two variables. 

References 

Shih, J.H., and Fay, M.P., 2017. Pearson's chi‐square test and rank correlation inferences for clustered data. Biometrics ,  73 (3), pp.822-834. 

World Health Organization (WHO)., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods, their health, and our food systems. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news/item/13-10-2020-impact-of-covid-19-on-people%27s-livelihoods-their-health-and-our-food-systems 

Appendices 

Table 1. Baseline characteristics of Canadians between the Province of residence and Precautions are taken to reduce risk - Avoided crowds and large gatherings. 

Province of residence	Precautions are taken to reduce risk - Avoided crowds and large gatherings
	Yes, N = 231354	No, N = 11140
Quebec	25020	2191
Ontario	111703	4850

Table 2. Baseline characteristics of Canadians between the Province of residence and Precautions taken to reduce risk - Avoided crowds and large gatherings. 

Province of residence	Precautions taken to reduce risk - Avoided crowds and large gatherings
	Yes, N = 231354	No, N = 11140
Newfoundland and Labrador	2581	100
Prince Edward Island	1106	56
Nova Scotia	13433	566
New Brunswick	5477	295
Quebec	25020	2191
Ontario	111703	4850
Manitoba	6908	317
Saskatchewan	7126	381
Alberta	21364	1108
British Columbia	34283	1146
Territories	2353	130
Valid skip	0	0
Don't know	0	0
Refusal	0	0
Not stated	0	0

Table 3. The cross-tabulation for the province of residence and the avoiding crowds and large gatherings as a precaution taken to reduce risk 

			Precautions are taken to reduce risk - Avoided crowds and large gatherings		Total
			Yes	No
		Expected Count	5506.8	265.2	5772.0
	Quebec	Count	25020	2191	27211
		Expected Count	25960.9	1250.1	27211.0
	Ontario	Count	111703	4850	116553
		Expected Count	111198.6	5354.4	116553.0
		Expected Count	2368.9	114.1	2483.0
Total		Count	231354	11140	242494
		Expected Count	231354.0	11140.0	242494.0

Table 4. The Chi-Square Tests 

	Value	df	Asymptotic Significance (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	972.254 a	10	.000
Likelihood Ratio	859.917	10	.000
N of Valid Cases	242494
a. 0 cells (.0%) have an expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 53.38.

Figure 1 : Histogram for Quebec Province 

Figure 2 : Histogram for Ontario Province