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Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea has been engaged in various efforts to overcome the pandemic. One of them is to provide app-based COVID-19–related services to the public. As the pandemic continues, a need for various apps has emerged, including COVID-19 apps that can support act...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Park, Jihwan, Han, Jinhyun, Kim, Yerin, Rho, Mi Jung
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8330629/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34137726
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29315
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author Park, Jihwan
Han, Jinhyun
Kim, Yerin
Rho, Mi Jung
author_facet Park, Jihwan
Han, Jinhyun
Kim, Yerin
Rho, Mi Jung
author_sort Park, Jihwan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea has been engaged in various efforts to overcome the pandemic. One of them is to provide app-based COVID-19–related services to the public. As the pandemic continues, a need for various apps has emerged, including COVID-19 apps that can support activities aimed at overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine which apps were considered the most necessary according to users and evaluate the current status of the development of COVID-19–related apps in South Korea. We also aimed to determine users’ acceptance and concerns related to using apps to support activities to combat COVID-19. METHODS: We collected data from 1148 users from a web-based survey conducted between November 11 and December 6, 2020. Basic statistical analysis, multiple response analysis, and the Wilcoxon rank sum test were performed using R software. We then manually classified the current status of the development of COVID-19–related apps. RESULTS: In total, 68.4% (785/1148) of the respondents showed high willingness to protect themselves from COVID-19 by using related apps. Users considered the epidemiological investigation app to be the most necessary app (709/1148, 61.8%) overall, followed by the self-management app for self-isolation (613/1148, 53.4%), self-route management app (605/1148, 52.7%), COVID-19 symptom management app (483/1148, 42.1%), COVID-19–related information provision app (339/1148, 29.5%), and mental health management app (270/1148, 23.5%). Despite the high intention to use these apps, users were also concerned about privacy issues and media exposure. Those who had an underlying disease and had experience using COVID-19–related apps showed significantly higher intentions to use those apps (P=.05 and P=.01, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Targeting users is very important in order to design and develop the most necessary apps. Furthermore, to gain the public’s trust and make the apps available to as many people as possible, it is vital to develop diverse apps in which privacy protection is maximized.
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spelling pubmed-83306292021-08-20 Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study Park, Jihwan Han, Jinhyun Kim, Yerin Rho, Mi Jung JMIR Med Inform Original Paper BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea has been engaged in various efforts to overcome the pandemic. One of them is to provide app-based COVID-19–related services to the public. As the pandemic continues, a need for various apps has emerged, including COVID-19 apps that can support activities aimed at overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine which apps were considered the most necessary according to users and evaluate the current status of the development of COVID-19–related apps in South Korea. We also aimed to determine users’ acceptance and concerns related to using apps to support activities to combat COVID-19. METHODS: We collected data from 1148 users from a web-based survey conducted between November 11 and December 6, 2020. Basic statistical analysis, multiple response analysis, and the Wilcoxon rank sum test were performed using R software. We then manually classified the current status of the development of COVID-19–related apps. RESULTS: In total, 68.4% (785/1148) of the respondents showed high willingness to protect themselves from COVID-19 by using related apps. Users considered the epidemiological investigation app to be the most necessary app (709/1148, 61.8%) overall, followed by the self-management app for self-isolation (613/1148, 53.4%), self-route management app (605/1148, 52.7%), COVID-19 symptom management app (483/1148, 42.1%), COVID-19–related information provision app (339/1148, 29.5%), and mental health management app (270/1148, 23.5%). Despite the high intention to use these apps, users were also concerned about privacy issues and media exposure. Those who had an underlying disease and had experience using COVID-19–related apps showed significantly higher intentions to use those apps (P=.05 and P=.01, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Targeting users is very important in order to design and develop the most necessary apps. Furthermore, to gain the public’s trust and make the apps available to as many people as possible, it is vital to develop diverse apps in which privacy protection is maximized. JMIR Publications 2021-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8330629/ /pubmed/34137726 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29315 Text en ©Jihwan Park, Jinhyun Han, Yerin Kim, Mi Jung Rho. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (https://medinform.jmir.org), 30.07.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Informatics, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://medinform.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Park, Jihwan
Han, Jinhyun
Kim, Yerin
Rho, Mi Jung
Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study
title Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study
title_full Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study
title_fullStr Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study
title_full_unstemmed Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study
title_short Development, Acceptance, and Concerns Surrounding App-Based Services to Overcome the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea: Web-Based Survey Study
title_sort development, acceptance, and concerns surrounding app-based services to overcome the covid-19 outbreak in south korea: web-based survey study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8330629/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34137726
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29315
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