Socioeconomic correlates of urban mobility trends in two Australian cities during transitional periods of the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, both government-mandated lockdowns and discretionary changes in behaviour combined to produce dramatic and abrupt changes to human mobility patterns. To understand the socioeconomic determinants of intervention compliance and discretionary behavioural responses to epidemic threats, we investigate whether changes in human mobility showed a systematic variation with socioeconomic status during two distinct periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. We analyse mobility data from two major urban centres and compare the trends during mandated stay-at-home policies and after the full relaxation of NPIs, which coincided with a large surge of COVID-19 cases. We analyse data aggregated from de-identified GPS trajectories, collated from providers of mobile phone applications and aggregated to small spatial regions. Our results demonstrate systematic decreases in mobility relative to pre-pandemic baseline with the Index of Education and Occupation, for both pandemic periods. On the other hand, the Index of Economic Resources was not correlated with mobility changes. This result contrasts with observations from other national contexts, where reductions in mobility typically increased strongly with indicators of wealth. We interpret these findings in the context of the economic policies put in place by Australian authorities to subsidise household incomes and maintain the essential workforce. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was funded by a seed grant from the Melbourne Centre for Data Science, and by a University of Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grant. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This project was approved by the University of Melbourne Office of Research Ethics and Integrity, application number 2022-24646-29913-3. The Committee agreed to approve the application on the basis that it met the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes