Analysis of the factors affecting the adoption and compliance of the NHS COVID-19 mobile application: a national cross-sectional survey in England
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Panchal, Marcus
Singh, Sukhpreet
Rodriguez-Villegas, Esther
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objectives: To conduct an independent study investigating how adults perceive the usability, and functionality of the ”NHS COVID-19” app. This study aims to highlight strengths, and provide recommendations to improve adoption of future contact tracing developments.
Design: A 60-item, anonymous online questionnaire, disseminated through social media outlets and email lists by a team from Imperial College London.
Setting: England
Participants: Convenience sample of 1036 responses, from participants aged 18 and above, between December 2020 to February 2021.
Primary Outcome Measures: Evaluate the compliance and public attitude towards the ”NHS COVID-19” app, regarding its functionality and features. This included whether participants expectations were met, and their thoughts on the app privacy and security. Furthermore, to distinguish how usability, perception, and adoption differed with varying demographics and user values.
Results: Fair compliance with the app features was identified, meeting expectations of 62.1% of participants who stated they downloaded it after weighted analysis. However, participants finding the interface challenging were less likely to read information in the app and had a lesser understanding of its functionality. Furthermore, little understanding regarding the app’s functionality and privacy concerns were possible reasons why users did not download it. A readability analysis of the text revealed information within the app was conveyed at a level that may be too complex for up to 43% of the UK population. The study highlighted issues related to the potential of false positives caused by the design choices in the “Check-In” feature.
Conclusion: This study showed that while the ”NHS COVID-19” app was viewed positively, there remained issues regarding participants' perceived knowledge of app functionality, potentially affecting compliance. Therefore, we recommended improvements regarding the delivery and presentation of the app’s information, and highlighted the potential need for the ability to check-out of venues to reduce the number of false positive contacts.
Design: A 60-item, anonymous online questionnaire, disseminated through social media outlets and email lists by a team from Imperial College London.
Setting: England
Participants: Convenience sample of 1036 responses, from participants aged 18 and above, between December 2020 to February 2021.
Primary Outcome Measures: Evaluate the compliance and public attitude towards the ”NHS COVID-19” app, regarding its functionality and features. This included whether participants expectations were met, and their thoughts on the app privacy and security. Furthermore, to distinguish how usability, perception, and adoption differed with varying demographics and user values.
Results: Fair compliance with the app features was identified, meeting expectations of 62.1% of participants who stated they downloaded it after weighted analysis. However, participants finding the interface challenging were less likely to read information in the app and had a lesser understanding of its functionality. Furthermore, little understanding regarding the app’s functionality and privacy concerns were possible reasons why users did not download it. A readability analysis of the text revealed information within the app was conveyed at a level that may be too complex for up to 43% of the UK population. The study highlighted issues related to the potential of false positives caused by the design choices in the “Check-In” feature.
Conclusion: This study showed that while the ”NHS COVID-19” app was viewed positively, there remained issues regarding participants' perceived knowledge of app functionality, potentially affecting compliance. Therefore, we recommended improvements regarding the delivery and presentation of the app’s information, and highlighted the potential need for the ability to check-out of venues to reduce the number of false positive contacts.
Date Issued
2021-08-13
Date Acceptance
2021-07-27
Citation
BMJ Open, 2021, 11 (8), pp.1-13
ISSN
2044-6055
Publisher
BMJ Journals
Start Page
1
End Page
13
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Open
Volume
11
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/8/e053395
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Medicine, General & Internal
General & Internal Medicine
covid-19
information technology
telemedicine
public health
health informatics
covid-19
health informatics
information technology
public health
telemedicine
Adult
COVID-19
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Mobile Applications
SARS-CoV-2
State Medicine
Humans
Cross-Sectional Studies
Adult
State Medicine
Mobile Applications
COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
1103 Clinical Sciences
1117 Public Health and Health Services
1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-08-13