The value of social interactions and incentives on the use of a digital contact tracing tool post COVID-19 lockdown in Singapore

Abstract

We assessed the preferences and trade-offs for social interactions, incentives, and being traced by a digital contact tracing (DCT) tool post lockdown in Singapore by a discrete choice experiment (DCE) among 3839 visitors of a large public hospital in Singapore between July 2020 – February 2021. Respondents were sampled proportionately by gender and four age categories (21 – 80 years). The DCE questionnaire had three attributes (1. Social interactions, 2. Being traced by a DCT tool, 3. Incentives to use a DCT tool) and two levels each. Panel fixed conditional logit model was used to analyse the data. Respondents were more willing to trade being traced by a DCT tool for social interactions than incentives and unwilling to trade social interactions for incentives. The proportion of respondents preferring no incentives and could only be influenced by their family members increases with age. Among proponents of monetary incentives, the preferred median value for a month’s usage of DCT tools amounted to S$10 (USD7.25) and S$50 (USD36.20) for subsidies and lucky draw. In conclusion, DCE can be used to elicit profile-specific preferences to optimize the uptake of DCT tools during a pandemic. Social interactions are highly valued by the population, who are willing to trade them for being traced by a DCT tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although a small amount of incentive is sufficient to increase the satisfaction of using a DCT tool, incentives alone may not increase DCT tool uptake.