Introduction: From a healthcare perspective, mass gatherings – such as music festivals and pilgrimages – present complex and multifaceted health risks that can strain healthcare systems (e.g., disease transmission, environmental stressors, and substance misuse; Memish et al., 2019; World Health Organization (WHO), 2015). Yet, as an emerging and rapidly evolving multidisciplinary field, mass gathering medicine remains theoretically underdeveloped (Memish et al., 2019; Steenkamp et al., 2016). Research and practice have tended to focus on physical factors in the aggravation and mitigation of risks in mass gatherings, while often ignoring psychosocial factors (Hopkins & Reicher, 2016a, 2016b, 2017). The WHO (2015) has recognised this paucity and highlighted the need for mass gathering management and research to “consider psychosocial elements in the planning and monitoring of events to ensure public safety” (p. 149). The present research provides a social-psychological perspective of the aggravation and mitigation of mass gathering-associated health risks by exploring perspectives of healthcare professionals (HCPs) operating in two mass gathering settings: a Catholic pilgrimage and music festivals.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews, complemented by a brief survey, were conducted with 17 HCPs in the United Kingdom operating at a religious pilgrimage and music festivals.
Results: The findings from a thematic analysis suggest that HCPs recognise that social identity processes involved in identity enactment in mass gatherings are implicated in health risks. HCPs also perceive value in drawing on social identity processes to inform and improve healthcare practices and interventions in mass gatherings. The findings from the survey corroborate the findings from the interviews.
Conclusion: Taken together, the research highlights avenues for future research and collaboration aimed at developing healthcare practices and interventions informed by the social identity approach for the management of health risks in mass gatherings.
Keywords: Social identity, Mass gatherings, Crowds