Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College, London, UK.
Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College, London, UK.
Med Princ Pract. 2022;31(5):424-432. doi: 10.1159/000526672. Epub 2022 Aug 26.
The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered public anxiety around the world. So far, the evidence suggests that prevention on a public scale is the most effective health measure for thwarting the progress of COVID-19. Another critical aspect of preventing COVID-19 is contact tracing. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of digital contact tracing applications currently available in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We undertook a systematic review and narrative synthesis of all literature relating to digital contact tracing applications in the context of COVID-19. We searched 3 major scientific databases. Only articles that were published in English and were available as full-text articles were selected for review. Data were extracted and narrative syntheses conducted.
Five studies relating to COVID-19 were included in the review. Our results suggest that digitalized contact tracing methods can be beneficial for impeding the progress of COVID-19. Three key themes were generated from this systematic review. First, the critical mass of adoption of applications must be attained at the population level before the sensitivity and positive predictive value of the solution can be increased. Second, usability factors such as access, ease of use, and the elimination of barriers are essential in driving this uptake. Third, privacy must be ensured where possible as it is the single most significant barrier against achieving critical mass.
Contact tracing methods have proved to be beneficial for impeding the progress of COVID-19 as compared to older, more labour-intensive manual methods.
2019 年新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行在全球引发了公众焦虑。到目前为止，有证据表明，大规模预防是阻止 COVID-19 进展的最有效卫生措施。预防 COVID-19 的另一个关键方面是接触者追踪。我们旨在研究目前在 COVID-19 大流行背景下可用的数字接触追踪应用程序的有效性。
我们对所有与 COVID-19 背景下的数字接触追踪应用程序相关的文献进行了系统评价和叙述性综合。我们搜索了 3 个主要的科学数据库。仅选择发表在英语且可作为全文文章的文章进行审查。提取数据并进行叙述性综合。
本综述纳入了 5 项与 COVID-19 相关的研究。我们的研究结果表明，数字化接触追踪方法可以有益于阻止 COVID-19 的传播。从这项系统评价中产生了 3 个关键主题。首先，必须在人群层面上达到应用程序的临界采用量，才能提高解决方案的敏感性和阳性预测值。其次，可用性因素（如可及性、易用性和消除障碍）对于推动这种采用至关重要。第三，在可能的情况下必须确保隐私，因为这是实现临界采用量的唯一最大障碍。
与较旧的、更劳动密集型的手动方法相比，接触者追踪方法已被证明有益于阻止 COVID-19 的传播。
