Palmer Anna, Sharma Shaishab, Nagpal Jayesh, Kimani Victor, Mai Florence, Ahmed Zara
Imperial College School of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
JMIR Form Res. 2024 Aug 12;8:e56000. doi: 10.2196/56000.
The NHS (National Health Service) COVID-19 app was a digital contact tracing app (DCTA) used in England in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of which was to limit the spread of COVID-19 by providing exposure alerts. At the time of the pandemic, questions were raised regarding the effectiveness and cost of the NHS COVID-19 app and whether DCTAs have a role in future pandemics.
This study aims to explore key barriers to DCTAs in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a qualitative study using semistructured video interviews conducted with professionals in public health, digital health, clinicians, health care law, and health executives who had an active role in the COVID-19 pandemic. These interviews aimed to explore the perspective of different experts involved in the pandemic response and gauge their opinions on the key barriers to DCTAs in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial use of maximum variation sampling combined with a snowball sampling approach ensured diversity within the cohort of interviewees. Interview transcripts were then analyzed using Braun and Clarke's 6 steps for thematic analysis.
Key themes that acted as barriers to DCTAs were revealed by interviewees such as privacy concerns, poor communication, technological accessibility, digital literacy, and incorrect use of the NHS COVID-19 app. Interviewees believed that some of these issues stemmed from poor governmental communication and a lack of transparency regarding how the NHS COVID-19 app worked, resulting in decreased public trust. Moreover, interviewees highlighted that a lack of social support integration within the NHS COVID-19 app and delayed app notification period also contributed to the poor adoption rates.
Qualitative findings from interviews highlighted barriers to the NHS COVID-19 app, which can be applied to DCTAs more widely and highlight some important implications for the future use of DCTAS. There was no consensus among interviewees as to whether the NHS COVID-19 app was a success; however, all interviewees provided recommendations for improvements in creating and implementing DCTAs in the future.
英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）新冠应用程序是一款数字接触者追踪应用程序（DCTA），在英国用于应对新冠疫情。其目的是通过提供接触警报来限制新冠病毒的传播。在疫情期间，人们对NHS新冠应用程序的有效性和成本以及DCTA在未来疫情中是否发挥作用提出了疑问。
本研究旨在探讨新冠疫情期间英国DCTA的关键障碍。
这是一项定性研究，采用半结构化视频访谈，访谈对象为在新冠疫情中发挥积极作用的公共卫生、数字健康、临床医生、医疗保健法律和卫生管理人员等专业人士。这些访谈旨在探讨参与疫情应对的不同专家的观点，并评估他们对新冠疫情期间英国DCTA关键障碍的看法。最初采用最大变异抽样结合滚雪球抽样方法，确保了受访者群体的多样性。然后使用布劳恩和克拉克的6步主题分析法对访谈记录进行分析。
受访者揭示了一些成为DCTA障碍的关键主题，如隐私担忧、沟通不畅、技术可及性、数字素养以及NHS新冠应用程序的使用不当。受访者认为，其中一些问题源于政府沟通不畅以及NHS新冠应用程序的工作方式缺乏透明度，导致公众信任度下降。此外，受访者强调，NHS新冠应用程序缺乏社会支持整合以及应用程序通知期延迟也导致了采用率较低。
访谈的定性结果突出了NHS新冠应用程序的障碍，这些障碍可更广泛地应用于DCTA，并对DCTA的未来使用具有一些重要启示。受访者对于NHS新冠应用程序是否成功没有达成共识；然而，所有受访者都为未来创建和实施DCTA提出了改进建议。
