Predicting Public Uptake of Digital Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results From a Nationwide Survey in Singapore

Saw, Young Ern; Tan, Edina Yi Qin; Liu, Jessica Shijia; Liu, Jean C. J.

doi:10.2196/24730

Cited by 60 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…When app users indicate that they have been infected with COVID-19, the app uses Bluetooth technology to recover information of all close contacts (ie, all other TousAntiCovid users who have spent more than 15 minutes within a distance of 1 meter of the said user, as recorded over a period of 14 days) and alerts them with generic notifications, recommending them to quarantine themselves and to take a COVID-19 screening test. There have been numerous criticisms focused on data privacy [ 6 , 7 ] and technical limitations of the app software [ 8 ]. Because downloading and using the TousAntiCovid app is voluntary in France, its effectiveness is dependent on acceptability and adoption among users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Acceptability of a Mobile App for Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in France: National Web-Based Survey

Touzani¹,

Schultz²,

Holmes³

et al. 2021

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Several countries have implemented mobile apps in an attempt to trace close contacts of patients with COVID-19 and, in turn, reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, the effectiveness of this approach depends on the adherence of a large segment of the population. Objective The aims of this study were to evaluate the acceptability of a COVID-19 contact tracing mobile app among the French population and to investigate the barriers to its use. Methods The Health Literacy Survey 2019 questioned 1003 people in France during the COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of quota sampling. The survey collected sociodemographic characteristics and health literacy data, as well as information on participants’ communication with caregivers, trust in institutions, and COVID-19 knowledge and preventive behaviors. The acceptability of a mobile app for contact tracing was measured by a single question, the responses to which were grouped into three modalities: app-supporting, app-willing, and app-reluctant. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors associated with the acceptability of a mobile app during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results Only 19.2% (193/1003) of all participants were app-supporting, whereas half of them (504/1003, 50.3%) were reluctant. The factors associated with willingness or support toward the contact tracing app included lower financial deprivation (app-willing: adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.8, 95% CI 0.69-0.93; app-supporting: aOR 0.7, 95% CI 0.58-0.84) and higher perceived usefulness of using a mobile app to send completed health questionnaires to doctors (app-willing: aOR 2.3, 95% CI 1.70-3.26; app-supporting: aOR 3.1, 95% CI 2.04-4.82). Furthermore, the likelihood of supporting the mobile app increased with age over 60 years (aOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.13-3.22), trust in political representatives (aOR 2.7, 95% CI 1.72-4.23), feeling concerned about the pandemic situation (aOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.47-3.32), and knowledge about the transmission of COVID-19 (aOR 2.0, 95% CI 1.39-2.96). Conclusions The most socioeconomically precarious people, who are at a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, are also the most reluctant to using a contact tracing mobile app. Therefore, optimal adherence can only be effective with a targeted discourse on public health benefits to adopt such an app, which should be combined with a reduction in inequalities by acting on structural determinants.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Acceptability of a Mobile App for Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in France: National Web-Based Survey

Touzani¹,

Schultz²,

Holmes³

et al. 2021

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To achieve this, demonstrating to the target population the high degree of privacy preservation and adherence to data protection regulation is important. Enhancing uptake through small monetary incentives may also be considered [163,164]. The IDCTA should be voluntary [40,[51][52][53][54][55]134], and mandating the use of DCTAs of uncertain effectiveness with associated potential harms, which have the highest likelihood of utility during periods of low COVID-19 incidence, may be difficult to justify as a proportionate response.…”

Section: Clinical and Societal Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature

O’Connell

Abbas

Beecham

et al. 2021

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Digital contact tracing apps have the potential to augment contact tracing systems and disrupt COVID-19 transmission by rapidly identifying secondary cases prior to the onset of infectiousness and linking them into a system of quarantine, testing, and health care worker case management. The international experience of digital contact tracing apps during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how challenging their design and deployment are. Objective This study aims to derive and summarize best practice guidance for the design of the ideal digital contact tracing app. Methods A collaborative cross-disciplinary approach was used to derive best practice guidance for designing the ideal digital contact tracing app. A search of the indexed and gray literature was conducted to identify articles describing or evaluating digital contact tracing apps. MEDLINE was searched using a combination of free-text terms and Medical Subject Headings search terms. Gray literature sources searched were the World Health Organization Institutional Repository for Information Sharing, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control publications library, and Google, including the websites of many health protection authorities. Articles that were acceptable for inclusion in this evidence synthesis were peer-reviewed publications, cohort studies, randomized trials, modeling studies, technical reports, white papers, and media reports related to digital contact tracing. Results Ethical, user experience, privacy and data protection, technical, clinical and societal, and evaluation considerations were identified from the literature. The ideal digital contact tracing app should be voluntary and should be equitably available and accessible. User engagement could be enhanced by small financial incentives, enabling users to tailor aspects of the app to their particular needs and integrating digital contact tracing apps into the wider public health information campaign. Adherence to the principles of good data protection and privacy by design is important to convince target populations to download and use digital contact tracing apps. Bluetooth Low Energy is recommended for a digital contact tracing app's contact event detection, but combining it with ultrasound technology may improve a digital contact tracing app's accuracy. A decentralized privacy-preserving protocol should be followed to enable digital contact tracing app users to exchange and record temporary contact numbers during contact events. The ideal digital contact tracing app should define and risk-stratify contact events according to proximity, duration of contact, and the infectiousness of the case at the time of contact. Evaluating digital contact tracing apps requires data to quantify app downloads, use among COVID-19 cases, successful contact alert generation, contact alert receivers, contact alert receivers that adhere to quarantine and testing recommendations, and the number of contact alert receivers who subsequently are tested positive for COVID-19. The outcomes of digital contact tracing apps' evaluations should be openly reported to allow for the wider public to review the evaluation of the app. Conclusions In conclusion, key considerations and best practice guidance for the design of the ideal digital contact tracing app were derived from the literature.

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“…Some articles described the transmission of COVID-19 in the population [321][322][323][324][325][326][327][328], including household [321,324] and asymptomatic transmissions [326,327]. There were articles about the epidemiological investigations into the clusters of COVID-19 cases [329][330][331][332][333], as well as some about the evaluation of methods of contact tracing, including the TraceTogether mobile application [334][335][336][337][338][339]. The effectiveness of the screening and testing strategies employed for COVID-19 were also discussed [340][341][342][343][344].…”

Section: Public Health (61 Articles)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research conducted over the past year will be of great aid in dealing with the resurgence of the virus now and in the future. The articles detailing how contact tracing and community care facilities have successfully helped stem the spread of the virus locally [310,315,319,[334][335][336][337][338][339]351] can be used as a reference for other countries to complement the existing public health measures and gain better control of the pandemic situation.…”

Section: Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Year on: An Overview of Singapore’s Response to COVID-19—What We Did, How We Fared, How We Can Move Forward

Anand

Shuy

Lee³

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Background—One year has passed since the first COVID-19 case in Singapore. This scoping review commemorates Singaporean researchers that have expanded the knowledge on this novel virus. We aim to provide an overview of healthcare-related articles published in peer-reviewed journals, authored by the Singapore research community about COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic. Methods—This was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) protocol. It included healthcare-related articles about COVID-19 published between 23 January 2020 and 22 January 2021 with a Singapore-affiliated author. MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and local journals were searched. The articles were screened independently by two reviewers. Results—The review included 504 articles. Most of the articles narrated the changes to hospital practice (210), while articles on COVID-19 pathology (94) formed most of the non-narrative papers. Publications on public health (61) and the indirect impacts to clinical outcomes (45) were other major themes explored by the research community. The remaining articles detailed the psychological impact of the pandemic (35), adaptations of medical education (30), and narratives of events (14). Conclusion—Amidst a resurgence of community cases involving variant COVID-19 strains, the resources from the research community will provide valuable guidance to navigate these uncertain times.

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Predicting Public Uptake of Digital Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results From a Nationwide Survey in Singapore

Cited by 60 publications

References 25 publications

Early Acceptability of a Mobile App for Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in France: National Web-Based Survey

Early Acceptability of a Mobile App for Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in France: National Web-Based Survey

Best Practice Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Apps: A Cross-disciplinary Review of the Literature

One Year on: An Overview of Singapore’s Response to COVID-19—What We Did, How We Fared, How We Can Move Forward

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