The psychological reassurance effect of mobile tracing apps in Covid-19 Era

Abstract

As part of their public health policies, most countries have launched mobile tracing applications (apps) to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and reassure their citizens. To the best of our knowledge, no study has explored the importance of ‘well-being’ and ‘trust in the future’ in the context of digital contact-tracing apps. This is an important gap, especially given the importance of citizens' acceptance of a mobile tracing app and its role in reassuring citizens. Therefore, we study the French government's tracing app—StopCovid—as experienced by a sample of 832 participants from France. The results establish strong links between perceived value and trust in government, well-being, and trust in the future, which are considered the key features of the reassurance effect in a pandemic context. In addition, a multigroup analysis (MGA) allows us to compare the effect of several moderators on the overall model, such as the users versus nonusers of tracking apps or infected versus noninfected with COVID-19. The study provides practical implications by highlighting how governments should deploy mobile tracing apps to contribute to public health and reassure their citizens during the pandemic.

Mobile Applications for the Implementation of Health Control against Covid-19 in Educational Centers, a Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Deep Learning and Machine Learning [28] Other Digital Technologies [29]- [50] Information and Communications Technology [51], [52] Internet of Things [53]- [59] Machine Learning [60]- [62] Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence [63] Mobile Application [64]- [126] Smartwatch [127] Virtual Reality [128] Table IV shows the classification of articles according to the results found.…”

“…[64]- [126] This article argues that the Smartwatch enables the detection of Covid-19 in the wearer as it can monitor heart rate and body temperature for diagnosis, thus achieving better health control of Covid-19.…”

“…[99]- [102], [104]- [109], [128], [133] Preventive [11], [20]- [22], [28], [42]- [47], [56]- [58], [110]- [122], [134] Tracking [18], [23], [49], [50], [123]- [126], [135] Table VI shows the classification of articles according to the results found. THEMES AND FUNCTIONALITY REFERENCES These articles take into account the parameter of distancing as they focus on creating strategies, and making use of technology, for the prevention of Covid-19, in scenarios where there is no rapprochement of individuals.…”

“…[18], [23], [49], [50], [123]- [126], [135] Fig. 12 shows the number of selected items grouped by database and quality attributes.…”

“…[17], [19], [20], [26], [41], [52], [53], [67], [68], [76], [94], [96], [99], [104], [109], [121], [123], [127] These articles take into account the quality attributes of functionality and security since they emphasize that all software must do the job for which it was developed and, nowadays, all software must have a decent degree of security since the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the rate of cybercrime. [18], [21], [22], [50], [54], [70], [125], [126] These articles take into account the quality attributes of functionality, performance, and reliability, they mention these quality attributes because they consider that software must perform its functions correctly with speed and accuracy, being able to operate with a large amount of data, such as the data generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, without having a long waiting time.…”