Westat is collaborating with the Stanford University School of Medicine to develop and field a nationally representative survey on the social and economic impact of COVID-19. Survey results will help policymakers make accurate, real-time decisions that can help families and the economy.

The survey objectives are to examine people’s beliefs regarding

• The risk of contracting COVID-19
• Their behaviors with respect to activity restriction
• The degree to which those behaviors are driven by policy vs. private choices

Westat’s Instrument Design, Evaluation, and Analysis (IDEA) Services collaborated closely with Stanford to develop the questionnaire, and Westat’s Statistics and Evaluation Sciences Group designed and drew the nationally representative sample. Westat’s Research Operations Service will conduct the data collection scheduled to begin soon. Westat and Stanford will also jointly analyze and publish findings from the survey.

“Not only is this effort timely,” notes Timothy M. Mulcahy, Westat Vice President and Practice Director for Social Policy and Economics Research, “but it also provides a tremendous opportunity to work closely with our collaborators at Stanford to measure the unprecedented social, behavioral, and economic impact that this deadly virus continues to have on our nation.”

This national survey will examine how COVID-19 has impacted Americans.