Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Aug 12, 2020
Date Accepted: Mar 17, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: May 17, 2021
Digital phenotypes for understanding individuals' compliance with COVID-19 policies and personalised nudges
ABSTRACT
Background:
Governments promote behavioural policies such as social distancing and phased reopening to control the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Digital phenotyping help to promote compliance with these policies through the personalised behavioural knowledge it produces.
Objective:
In this paper, we show the significance of smartphone-derived digital phenotypes in (i) understanding individuals' compliance with COVID-19 policies, and (ii) personalising communication of those policies.
Methods:
We conduct longitudinal experiments that start before the outbreak of COVID-19 and continue during the pandemic. A total of 16 participants were recruited before the pandemic, and a smartphone sensing application was installed each of them. In light of that, we study the individual's compliance with COVID-19 policies and the impact on habitual behaviours.
Results:
Our results are discussed within the context of nudges used by the National Health Service in the UK to promote COVID-19 regulations. In so doing, we show how behavioural knowledge derived from digital phenotyping makes the case for promoting COVID-19 policies through personalised nudges.
Conclusions:
As shown from the result, digital phenotyping has significant values in understanding people’s behaviour during a pandemic. Behavioural features extracted from digital phenotypes can facilitate the personalisation of and compliance with behavioural policies. A rule-based messaging system can be implemented to deliver nudges based on the analysis of digital phenotyping.
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Copyright
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