Willingness to take part in COVID tracing apps

Postdoctoral Fellow Dirk Witteveen and co-author Pablo de Pedraza examine the role of individuals’ general health status, their socioeconomic position and ‘COVID-19 proximity’ in the willingness to participate in a COVID-19 tracing app.

Using data from Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, the paper shows that the influence of socioeconomic factors varies widely between countries, although those without jobs seemed to have lower take-up. Having a close family member who had been infected is, however, a good predictor of tracing app usage.

(Pablo de Pedraza and Dirk Witteveen, ‘The Roles of General Health and COVID-19 Proximity in App Contact-Tracing Usage: Cross-sectional Survey Study’. Published as a preprint in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance.)