Effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts for social distancing against COVID-19 in Korea

Yeon, Dahye; Kwak, Myunghwan; Chung, Ji‐Bum

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06575-z

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Earlier studies, particularly those examining COVID-19, faced difficulties in robust statistical analysis and data collection reflecting public responses [ 3 , 13 ]. Unlike previous work that focused on a few regions or solely on the number of WEAs, this study stands out by analyzing variations in the number and content of WEAs across different regions due to the regions’ independent authorities issuing them [ 8 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, little is known about the impact of WEAs on people’s behavior because granular data sets of the focal outcome variable at various regions and short-time levels are unlikely to be available (eg, the real-time population at a specific time in a particular region). Only a few studies have examined the impact of WEAs, and they focused on either the impact of a single region [ 8 ] or simply compared the delivering and nondelivering regions [ 3 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Wireless Emergency Alerts on a Floating Population in Seoul, South Korea: Panel Data Analysis

Yoon,

Lim,

Park

2024

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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Background Wireless emergency alerts (WEAs), which deliver disaster information directly to individuals’ mobile phones, have been widely used to provide information related to COVID-19 and to encourage compliance with social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. The floating population refers to the number of people temporarily staying in a specific area, and this demographic data can be a useful indicator to understand the level of social distancing people are complying with during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective This study aimed to empirically analyze the impact of WEAs on the floating population where WEAs were transmitted in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As most WEA messages focus on compliance with the government’s social distancing guidelines, one of the goals of transmitting WEAs during the COVID-19 pandemic is to control the floating population at an appropriate level. Methods We investigated the empirical impact of WEAs on the floating population across 25 districts in Seoul by estimating a panel regression model at the district-hour level with a series of fixed effects. The main independent variables were the number of instant WEAs, the daily cumulative number of WEAs, the total cumulative number of WEAs, and information extracted from WEAs by natural language processing at the district-hour level. The data set provided a highly informative empirical setting as WEAs were sent by different local governments with various identifiable district-hour–level data. Results The estimates of the impact of WEAs on the floating population were significantly negative (–0.013, P=.02 to –0.014, P=.01) across all specifications, implying that an additional WEA issuance reduced the floating population by 1.3% (=100(1–e–0.013)) to 1.4% (=100(1–e–0.014)). Although the coefficients of DCN (the daily cumulative number of WEAs) were also negative (–0.0034, P=.34 to –0.0052, P=.15) across all models, they were not significant. The impact of WEAs on the floating population doubled (–0.025, P=.02 to –0.033, P=.005) when the first 82 days of observations were used as subsamples to reduce the possibility of people blocking WEAs. Conclusions Our results suggest that issuing WEAs and distributing information related to COVID-19 to a specific district was associated with a decrease in the floating population of that district. Furthermore, among the various types of information in the WEAs, location information was the only significant type of information that was related to a decrease in the floating population. This study makes important contributions. First, this study measured the impact of WEAs in a highly informative empirical setting. Second, this study adds to the existing literature on the mechanisms by which WEAs can affect public response. Lastly, this study has important implications for making optimal WEAs and suggests that location information should be included.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Wireless Emergency Alerts on a Floating Population in Seoul, South Korea: Panel Data Analysis

Yoon,

Lim,

Park

2024

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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“…Other empirical studies have relied on follow-up surveys of users 24 , which is subject to respondent bias, or on indirect population-level proxy metrics such as changes in foot tra c in an outbreak area, which is not restricted to exposed contacts and may not re ect the speci c effect of digital exposure noti cation 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in social contact time following digital SARS-CoV-2 post-exposure notification: A retrospective case-control study at a US university

Citron,

Loh,

Yee

et al. 2024

Preprint

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In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital contact tracing smartphone applications were developed for the purpose of reducing transmission by encouraging individuals to voluntarily quarantine after exposure. Privacy protocols used in many of these apps prevented longitudinal linkage of users’ contact network data, making it impossible to observe whether users reduced social contact following digital exposure notification. We used anonymous data from one particular app deployment, which used alternative privacy measures and retained longitudinal interaction data, to evaluate changes in the users’ time in proximity to other users after digital exposure notification. We analyzed a dataset of the anonymous app users in a US university community January − March 2021, before COVID-19 vaccines were widely available. Users provided consent for their anonymous data to be used for research. We conducted pre-post analysis of contact time with other users before and after using the app to self-report being a positive COVID-19 case, and before and after exposure notification by the app. We further conducted a retrospective case-control study by matching users who did and who did not receive exposure notification based on having similar contact time with other users prior to notification. In pre-post analysis, we found that users who reported being a positive case to the app reduced their total contact time with others by 29% (p = 0.002) in the 7-day period immediately after time of the report vs. the 7-day period before the time of the report. However, we observed no statistically significant change in contact time before vs. after exposure notification. We also observed no statistically significant difference in contact time compared to matched controls who received no notification. Our findings suggest that digital contact tracing app users affiliated with this US university did not reduce contact with others after receiving exposure notification. Our study provides one of the first rigorous evaluations of the effectiveness of digital exposure notifications during a time when communities were reliant on non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce disease spread.

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“…Subtle changes in the way that mobile alerts are worded can increase or decrease recipients' use of critical network resources, which can impact emergency service provision (Lambropoulos et al, 2021). Efforts to improve COVID‐19 response have accelerated this type of WEA “message optimization” research (Bean et al, 2021; Yeon et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wireless emergency alerts: Public understanding, trust, and preferences following the 2021 US nationwide test

Bean

Grevstad

2022

Contingencies & Crisis Mgmt

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On August 11, 2021, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducted the second national test of the wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system. The first test was conducted in 2018. This study offers an analysis of a nationwide survey (N = 1056) administered in the days immediately following the 2021 national test. The analysis indicates that a substantial number of respondents do not well understand the uses of the WEA system, especially the “National Alert” message class. However, more respondents believe that the “National Alert” message class label would signal more trustworthy information than the “Presidential Alert” message class label, a finding that bolsters the FCC's 2021 decision to abandon the “Presidential Alert” message class label. Despite a lack of accurate understanding of message classes and opt‐out options, a substantial number of respondents trust the WEA system to work properly. A clear majority of respondents would appreciate device‐based public education materials about the WEA system. The implications of the survey findings for WEA system management and public education are discussed.

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Effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts for social distancing against COVID-19 in Korea

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

The Impact of Wireless Emergency Alerts on a Floating Population in Seoul, South Korea: Panel Data Analysis

The Impact of Wireless Emergency Alerts on a Floating Population in Seoul, South Korea: Panel Data Analysis

Changes in social contact time following digital SARS-CoV-2 post-exposure notification: A retrospective case-control study at a US university

Wireless emergency alerts: Public understanding, trust, and preferences following the 2021 US nationwide test

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