Industry and workplace characteristics associated with the downloading of a COVID-19 contact tracing app in Japan: a nation-wide cross-sectional study
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Abstract
Background
To combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many countries have used contact tracing apps, including Japan’s voluntary-use contact-confirming application (COCOA). The current study aimed to identify industry and workplace characteristics associated with the downloading of this COVID-19 contact tracing app.
Methods
This cross-sectional study of full-time workers used an online survey. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the associations of industry and workplace characteristics with contact tracing app use.
Results
Of the 27,036 participants, 25.1% had downloaded the COCOA. Workers in the public service (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.29, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.45) and information technology (aOR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.20–1.58) industries were more likely to use the app than were those in the manufacturing industry. In contrast, app usage was less common among workers in the retail and wholesale (aOR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.76–0.99) and food/beverage (aOR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.70–0.94) industries, but further adjustment for company size attenuated these associations. Workers at larger companies were more likely to use the app. Compared with permanent employees, the odds of using the app were higher for managers and civil servants but lower for those who were self-employed.
Conclusions
Downloading of COCOA among Japanese workers was insufficient; thus, the mitigating effect of COCOA on the COVID-19 pandemic is considered to be limited. One possible reason for the under-implementation of the contact tracing app in the retail and wholesale and food/beverage industries is small company size, as suggested by the fully adjusted model results. An awareness campaign should be conducted to promote the widespread use of the contact tracing app in these industries.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.01.21254744: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (R2-079). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We used Stata/SE 16.1 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA) for all analyses. StataCorpsuggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing …SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.01.21254744: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (R2-079). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We used Stata/SE 16.1 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA) for all analyses. StataCorpsuggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:This study has several limitations. First, the study recruited panelists who registered with an online research company. Therefore, the participants may not represent general workers. For example, online panelists may be particularly willing to use online tools or more familiar than others with using apps. Consequently, the results may underestimate negative factors for use of the app. Second, we evaluated the use of the contact tracing app by asking participants about whether they had downloaded it. Therefore, we did not confirm whether the application was installed. However, we think that most people who downloaded the app also installed it. Despite these limitations, to the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first study in Japan to examine current use of the COCOA with a large sample. In conclusion, the present study evaluated the associations of industry and workplace characteristics with the use of a COVID-19 contact tracing app in a large-scale online survey of Japanese workers. Those working in the public service sector or in information technology, as well as managers, were frequently found to use the contact tracing app, whereas those working in the retail and wholesale and food/beverage industries were less likely to use it. One possible reason for the under-implementation of the contact tracing app in the retail and wholesale and food/beverage industries may be the small size of businesses in these types of industries. An awareness campaign should be ...
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.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
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- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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