College of Health Science, Dankook University, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
College of Liberal Arts, Dankook University, 119 Dandae-ro Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, 31116, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2024 Nov 16;24(1):1419. doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-11937-6.
In the wake of the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, research on the difficulties faced by epidemiologists conducting epidemiological investigations has been progressing steadily. However, few studies have developed applications (apps) that can directly support epidemiological investigations via information and communication (ICT) technology, and conducted usability evaluations on them via user responses. This has caused difficulties when developing such technologies. We introduced and evaluated two mobile apps that support epidemiological investigations. This study attempted to identify the predictors affecting the acceptance of infectious disease self-management apps.
We developed two infectious disease self-management smartphone apps for epidemiological investigations: KODARI (the Korean version) and MEDARI (in English version). We collected data from 248 users of KODARI by surveying Korean citizens. This study was conducted from November 15 to December 14, 2022. We used multiple regression analysis to identify the variables that affected continuous intention to use the KODARI app. We conducted two independent-samples t-tests to determine whether there were any differences in the perception of each variable in relation to demographic and COVID-19-related user characteristics.
The factors that affected continuous intention to use the KODARI app, in order of relative importance, were: price value, satisfaction, performance expectancy, and facilitating conditions. Overall, male participants were more satisfied with the KODARI app than female ones, and more willing to continue using it. The male participants also evaluated facilitating conditions more positively than the female ones did. Married participants rated the app higher than single ones in terms of price value, performance expectancy, and continued intention to use.
The study suggests factors that increase the use of health apps and suggests that use of these apps may increase further in the event of a future pandemics. These results are expected to help researchers study other infectious disease apps in the context of public health surveillance.
在冠状病毒病-19（COVID-19）大流行之后，研究流行病学家在进行流行病学调查时所面临的困难一直在稳步推进。然而，很少有研究开发出可以通过信息和通信（ICT）技术直接支持流行病学调查的应用程序（apps），并通过用户的反馈对其进行可用性评估。这给这些技术的开发带来了困难。我们介绍并评估了两款支持流行病学调查的移动应用程序。本研究试图确定影响传染病自我管理应用程序接受度的预测因素。
我们为流行病学调查开发了两款传染病自我管理智能手机应用程序：KODARI（韩语版）和 MEDARI（英文版）。我们通过调查韩国公民收集了 248 名 KODARI 用户的数据。这项研究于 2022 年 11 月 15 日至 12 月 14 日进行。我们使用多元回归分析来确定影响连续使用 KODARI 应用程序意愿的变量。我们进行了两个独立样本 t 检验，以确定在与人口统计学和 COVID-19 相关的用户特征相关的每个变量的感知方面是否存在差异。
按相对重要性排列，影响连续使用 KODARI 应用程序的因素依次为：价格价值、满意度、绩效预期和促进条件。总体而言，男性参与者对 KODARI 应用程序的满意度高于女性参与者，并且更愿意继续使用该应用程序。男性参与者对促进条件的评价也比女性参与者更为积极。已婚参与者在价格价值、绩效预期和继续使用意愿方面对应用程序的评价高于单身参与者。
该研究提出了增加健康应用程序使用的因素，并表明在未来发生大流行时，这些应用程序的使用可能会进一步增加。这些结果有望帮助研究人员在公共卫生监测背景下研究其他传染病应用程序。
