Why Individuals Do (Not) Use Contact Tracing Apps: A Health Belief Model Perspective on the German Corona-Warn-App

Harborth, D.; Pape, S. and McKenzie, L.

In Healthcare, 11 (4), 2023.

Abstract

Objective. To investigate adoption factors of contact tracing apps against infectious diseases based on a sample with actual users and non-users of an existing app. Data Sources and Study Setting. We utilise primary data which we collected with an online survey with the help of a certified panel provider in Germany. The data was collected between December 30, 2020 and January 13, 2021. Study Design. We adapted the Health Belief Model to the infectious disease Covid-19 and contact tracing apps as a disease prevention measure. Users as well as non-users of the German contact tracing app, the Corona-Warn-App (CWA), answered the survey. Based on this setting, we ran a logistic regression model to assess the likelihood of an individual using the CWA. Data Collection/Extraction Methods. We collected our data with the help of a certified panel provider in Germany (certified following the ISO 20252 norm). The sample consists of 1,752 participants (896 CWA users and 856 non-users) which is representative for Germany according to the EUROSTAT2018 census. Principal Findings. Our results indicate that the CWA use is influenced by participants' intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, perceived technical barriers, privacy concerns and income. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have positive effects on app use (marginal effects of 0.074 and 0.047, respectively) while technical barriers and a lack of understanding (marginal effect of -0.063), privacy concerns (-0.035) and low levels of household income (marginal effect of -0.098) have negative effects on app use. Conclusions. We contribute to the literature by questioning users and non-users of an existing contact tracing app and by adapting the Health Belief Model to infectious diseases and new information systems to cope with the associated challenges of those diseases. Furthermore, we argue that the perceived technical barriers for such apps must be reduced, e.g., by providing further elucidations.

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Bibtex

@Article{HPM23healthcare,
  author    = {David Harborth and Sebastian Pape and Lukas McKenzie},
  title     = {Why Individuals Do (Not) Use Contact Tracing Apps: A Health Belief Model Perspective on the German Corona-Warn-App},
  journal   = {Healthcare},
  year      = {2023},
  volume    = {11},
  number    = {4},
  month     = {02},
  doi       = {10.3390/healthcare11040583},
  keywords  = {CWA, Human Factors},
  url       = {https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/4/583},
}

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