Online respondent-driven detection for enhanced contact tracing of close-contact infectious diseases: benefits and barriers for public health practice
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Abstract
Background
Online respondent-driven detection (RDD) is a novel method of case finding that can enhance contact tracing (CT). However, the advantages and challenges of RDD for CT have not yet been investigated from the perspective of public health professionals (PHPs). Therefore, it remains unclear if, and under what circumstances, PHPs are willing to apply RDD for CT.
Methods
Between March and April 2019, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Dutch PHPs responsible for CT in practice. Questions were derived from the ‘diffusion of innovations’ theory. Between May and June 2019, we distributed an online questionnaire among 260 Dutch PHPs to quantify the main qualitative findings. Using different hypothetical scenarios, we assessed anticipated advantages and challenges of RDD, and PHPs’ intention to apply RDD for CT.
Results
Twelve interviews were held, and 70 PHPs completed the online questionnaire. A majority of questionnaire respondents (71%) had a positive intention towards using RDD for CT. Anticipated advantages of RDD were ‘ accommodating easy and autonomous participation in CT of index cases and contact persons ’, and ‘ reaching contact persons more efficiently ’. Anticipated challenges were ‘ limited opportunities for PHPs to support, motivate, and coordinate the execution of CT ’, ‘ not being able to adequately convey measures to index cases and contact persons ’, and ‘ anticipated unrest among index cases and contact persons ’. Circumstances under which PHPs anticipated RDD applicable for CT included index cases and contact persons being reluctant to share information directly with PHPs, digitally skilled and literate persons being involved, and large scale CT. Circumstances under which PHPs anticipated RDD less applicable for CT included severe consequences of missing information or contact persons for individual or public health, involvement of complex or impactful measures for index cases and contact persons, and a disease being perceived as severe or sensitive by index cases and their contact persons.
Conclusions
PHPs generally perceived RDD as a potentially beneficial method for public health practice, that may help overcome challenges present in traditional CT, and could be used during outbreaks of infectious diseases that spread via close contact. The circumstances under which CT is performed, appear to strongly influence PHPs’ intention to use RDD for CT.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.24.20138024: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and limitations: One important strength of this research was the mixed methods design, which allowed us to study qualitative findings in a larger population of PHPs (15). We also developed and extensively pilot tested our research materials, in particular the audio-visual introduction to online-RDD and the hypothetical scenarios, in close collaboration with PHPs. This allowed respondents to thoroughly deliberate on the use of …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.24.20138024: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and limitations: One important strength of this research was the mixed methods design, which allowed us to study qualitative findings in a larger population of PHPs (15). We also developed and extensively pilot tested our research materials, in particular the audio-visual introduction to online-RDD and the hypothetical scenarios, in close collaboration with PHPs. This allowed respondents to thoroughly deliberate on the use of online-RDD for CT, despite the conceptual nature of this exercise. However, a number of limitations need to be addressed. First, at the time of this study online-RDD was unknown to the majority of Dutch PHPs. Therefore, it should be taken into account that the information provided to research participants through this study shaped, at least to some extent, participants’ expectations of online-RDD for CT in practice. Second, this research was conducted just before the COVID-19 outbreak. Considering the impact of the outbreak and the increasing interest in - and debate on technological innovations in CT, we are unsure to what degree this may have affected PHPs perceptions of online-RDD as presented in this study. Third, the limited sample size of this research’s quantitative component prohibited multi-variable or other explanatory statistical analyses. Nevertheless, considering the questionnaire’s response rate (31%) and geographical coverage (all provinces in the Netherlands), we believe that our results still give useful insights in Dutch PHPs’...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
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Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
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- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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