The Optimise Study is a research project led by Burnet Institute and Doherty Institute that aims to find out how Victorians are experiencing COVID-19 and responding to the measures introduced to stop the spread of the virus.
The information gathered in this research project will help guide Victoria’s approach to COVID-19, both to prevent new infections and to reduce the health, social and economic impacts of COVID-19 restriction and prevention measures. This network image is an example of close contact between people from the Optimise Project which covers from the beginning of the project in September 2020 until September 2021. The network image does not show all people involved in the Optimise Project, but instead focuses on only some of the connections between people.
The blue dots are people in the Optimise Project, and are participants or other people that participants have contact with. The grey lines represent the close contact between people. You can see that between some people (i.e., some blue dots) there are many lines between people who interact a lot with one another. Between other people, there is only one connection between people indicating only one interaction between those people. And of course, there are no lines between some people, meaning they do not have contact with one another at all.
You can see that some people cluster together in groups, while others only have regular contact with one other person. It is natural for people to differ in how many others they connect with. The Optimise Study is a research project led by Burnet Institute and Doherty Institute, that aims to find out how Victorians are experiencing COVID-19 and responding to the measures introduced to stop the spread of the virus.
This includes:
This includes:
This includes:
Evidence from the Optimise Study will also assist community organisations and key health service groups in restoring economic activity and recreational activities whilst keeping new infections of COVID-19 at a low level. This involves real-time testing of key interventions to allow global scaling at speed.
This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines, views on the rollout strategy and information needs.
Optimise Report 4 Mar 2021 [PDF 701.7 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines, views on the rollout strategy and information needs.
Optimise REPORT4 Final [PDF 698.4 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about overall contacts, contacts over time, how contacts impact mood and how social networks influence vaccination attitudes.
Optimise REPORT5 April 5 2021 [PDF 2.2 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about overall contacts, contacts over time, how contacts impact mood and how social networks influence vaccination attitudes.
Optimise REPORT5 Final [PDF 2.2 MB]This report surveys Optimise Study participants to explore gendered differences in managing and responding to COVID 19 across employment, mental health, lifestyle and risk perception.
Optimise REPORT6 Final [PDF 785.1 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about COVID-19’s impact on employment status, work and career changes, financial hardship and access to financial support.
Optimise Report 7 Jun 2021 [PDF 752.5 kB]This report surveys Optimise Study participants about social contacts and social distancing, COVID-19 testing behaviours and trends, and the acceptability of government interventions.
Optimise REPORT8 Final [PDF 1.0 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about COVID-19 vaccinations including intentions to be vaccinated, motivating factors, concerns, knowledge, beliefs and expectations.
Optimise REPORT9 Final [PDF 903.6 kB]This report collates the findings from Optimise COVID-19 research activities including participant responses, qualitative interviews and community meetings.
Optimise REPORT11 Final [PDF 817.4 kB]This report summarises responses in the COVID-19 Optimise study regarding the frequency and method of testing among school students and thoughts on the pandemic.
Optimise Report 12 Nov 2021 [PDF 1.7 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about access and adequacy of COVID-19 information, financial hardship, experiences of racism, and expectations post vaccination.
Optimise REPORT13 Final [PDF 992.4 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their main concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, risk perception and confidence in government responses.
Optimise Report 14 Mar 2022 [PDF 762.9 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their COVID 19 testing patterns, test positivity and changing contacts over time.
Optimise REPORT15 Final [PDF 1.0 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their COVID 19-related concerns, views on prevention measures and confidence in government over time.
Optimise Report 16 [PDF 1.2 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about COVID-19 vaccine intentions, adherence to isolation and quarantine, and contacts before testing positive and entering isolation.
Optimise Report 17 [PDF 975.8 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about schools re-opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 testing and prevention in schools and potential school closures.
Optimise Special Report Apr 2022 [PDF 927.0 kB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their behaviours under the current COVID-19 pandemic declaration and potential behaviours should the declaration cease.
Optimise Special Report Jun 2022 [PDF 2.0 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their experience of long COVID and any behaviours used to mitigate the risk of developing it.
Optimise Special Report Aug 2022 [PDF 1.3 MB]This report explores responses from Optimise Study participants about their COVID-19 experiences during the 2021–22 summer with a particular focus on the January 2022 peak.
Optimise_snapshot_summer_final.pdf [PDF 3.8 MB]