Predictors to Use Mobile Apps for Monitoring COVID-19 Symptoms and Contact Tracing: Survey Among Dutch Citizens

Abstract

Background eHealth apps have been recognized as a valuable tool to reduce COVID-19’s effective reproduction number. The factors that determine the acceptance of COVID-19 apps remain unknown. The exception here is privacy. Objective The aim of this article was to identify antecedents of acceptance of (1) a mobile app for COVID-19 symptom recognition and monitoring and (2) a mobile app for contact tracing, both by means of an online survey among Dutch citizens. Methods Next to the demographics, the online survey contained questions focusing on perceived health, fear of COVID-19, and intention to use. We used snowball sampling via posts on social media and personal connections. To identify antecedents of the model for acceptance of the 2 mobile apps, we conducted multiple linear regression analyses. Results In total, 238 Dutch adults completed the survey; 59.2% (n=141) of the responders were female and the average age was 45.6 years (SD 17.4 years). For the symptom app, the final model included the predictors age, attitude toward technology, and fear of COVID-19. The model had an r2 of 0.141. The final model for the tracing app included the same predictors and had an r2 of 0.156. The main reason to use both mobile apps was to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Concerns about privacy was mentioned as the main reason to not use the mobile apps. Conclusions Age, attitude toward technology, and fear of COVID-19 are important predictors of the acceptance of COVID-19 mobile apps for symptom recognition and monitoring and for contact tracing. These predictors should be taken into account during the development and implementation of these mobile apps to secure acceptance.

Understanding Patients’ Intention to Use Digital Health Apps That Support Postdischarge Symptom Monitoring by Providers Among Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome: Survey Study

“…The survey design was informed by prior literature on assessing participants’ intention to use digital interventions [ 29 , 30 ]. One researcher (with expertise in health informatics and implementation science) created the initial survey by adapting a subset of validated questions from a survey assessing participants’ intention to use mobile apps for COVID-19 symptom monitoring [ 30 ].…”

“…The survey design was informed by prior literature on assessing participants’ intention to use digital interventions [ 29 , 30 ]. One researcher (with expertise in health informatics and implementation science) created the initial survey by adapting a subset of validated questions from a survey assessing participants’ intention to use mobile apps for COVID-19 symptom monitoring [ 30 ]. A cardiologist and 2 research team members (with training in public health and clinical research, respectively) reviewed the survey content and provided feedback on clarifying and simplifying the language of the introduction paragraph, the survey questions, and the response options.…”

Bridging values: Finding a balance between privacy and control. The case of Corona apps in Belgium and the Netherlands

“…In the Netherlands, upon getting a positive test result, more than 110,000 people agreed to share their results through Cor-onaMelder, which allowed the identification of 9000 additional positive virus cases (Hinch et al, 2020). Researchers from the University of Twente (Jansen-Kosterink et al, 2021) and the University of Tilburg (van der Laan et al, 2021) issued reports presenting their results of research on the adoption and use of the app. The researchers from Twente reported that the main reason people downloaded and used CoronaMelder was to control the spread of the virus, whereas the main reason for not downloading it was privacy.…”

COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Privacy: A Longitudinal Study of Public Opinion

“…Themes: privacy concerns abound, but a majority indicate a willingness to download contact tracing apps. Many groups have assessed a population's willingness to download a contact tracing app, finding rates between 27 and 84% at different points in time, with different privacy and data sharing and usage situations and different populations, including Australia [21,22,30], China [56], a number of countries in Western Europe [1,3,35,38,46,56,69,97,100], and the US [1,3,4,38,39,56,60,72,90,101]. These works identified concerns thematically similar to ours, such as privacy concerns about sharing with the government, and correlations between willingness to download and COVID-19 concern levels or demographic information, e.g., age.…”